Method and system for locating resources and communicating within an enterprise

ABSTRACT

A method and system of tracking and reporting locations of entity employees, the method for use with at least a first interface device including a display screen, the method comprising the steps of, providing a processor programmed to perform the steps of, storing schedules of entity employees where the schedules indicate scheduled locations of employees during time slots, receiving an indication from a first employee indicating at least a first future time slot, identifying locations of the entity employees during the future time slot, using the schedules of entity employees to generate a location representation indicating the locations of at least a subset of the entity employees during the at least a first future time slot and presenting the location representation via the first interface device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/575,141, filed on Sep. 18, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/190,592, filed on Nov. 14, 2018, which isa continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/686,847, filed onAug. 25, 2017, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,161,752 on Dec. 25, 2018,which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/871,097,filed on Sep. 30, 2015, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,766,079 on Sep.19, 2017, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 62/059,602, filed on Oct. 3, 2014, all of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not application applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The field of the invention is resource tracking and more specificallysystems and methods for identifying available resources including, amongother things, space, people and equipment associated with an enterpriseand obtaining access to those resources.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Years ago, most companies were regional or, where they were national,had one or more offices in each region of the country to servicerelatively local clients. Employees lived near the facilities theyworked in and often had dedicated offices adjacent other employees theyroutinely worked with and had access to local resources such asconference spaces, video communication systems, printers, etc. Oneadvantage in these cases was that employees became familiar with allavailable resources within a facility through routine use. Each employeeknew office layouts, locations of and affordances in conference spaces,and in many cases even knew general schedules of fellow employees intheir facilities (e.g., that staffing meetings were held every Mondaymorning from 8 AM to 9 AM in conference room AAA).

Another advantage was that the employees could quickly determineavailability of resources including conference spaces and otheremployees. An employee could see if a light or a computer was on inanother employee's office and determine if the other employee was in afacility that day. An employee could visually determine if a conferencespace was available.

One other advantage was that teams of people that worked on specificprojects were often located in the same facility. Co-location meant thatteam members were able to see each other routinely and to find otherteam members in between team conferences to move team tasks along. Tothis end, with employees co-located, short impromptu meetings when twoemployees had open space in their schedules could happen naturally. Forinstance, two employees could bump into each other in a hallway and havea short conference regarding a pressing issue. As another instance, oneemployee could pop her head into another employee's office and, if theother employee was available, could have a short discussion about sometopic or could identify a time when the short discussion could occur.

Yet another advantage was that employees could sense availability ofother employees based on non-verbal telltale signs. For instance, if afirst employee had her door shut during morning hours, other employeescould sense that the first employee was busy during that time eventhough the first employee's schedule may have indicated availability. Asanother instance, based on personal conversations, employees in onefacility may have known well in advance when a first employee from thatfacility was going to be traveling to a different facility in adifferent time zone and therefore that the first employee would likelybe out of pocket during certain periods of the day due to the timechange.

Times have changed and so have the staffing models at many largecompanies so that now many employees routinely travel among manydifferent facilities nationally and internationally to attend meetingsand conferences. Many employees are routinely located in unfamiliarfacilities without knowledge about facility layout and affordances,locations of other employees within facilities, or any tools forassessing real time schedules of enterprise resources (e.g., conferenceor personal spaces, affordances within spaces, other employees, etc.).For example, an employee visiting a large Tokyo facility for the firsttime would be unfamiliar with locations of conference spaces within thefacility as well as options for space that could be used for personalfocused work as well as affordances (e.g., video capabilities, printers,etc.) within the spaces. Here, the employee also generally would not beaware of locations of personal offices of other employees within thespace or of spaces temporarily (e.g., for a day) used by other specificemployees within the space. Even if the employee had a map of differentspaces within the facility, the employee would have no way to determineavailability of the spaces for personal or group use or the locations ofother employees in the facility located outside their assigned personalspaces.

Problems associated with lack of insight into resources and schedulesare exacerbated by un-scheduled on the fly changes to resource schedulesthat are unknown to employees. For instance, a conference space may beclaimed for an impromptu 25 minute meeting between two colleagues thatunexpectedly bump into each other in a hall way. In this case, theconference space as well as each of the conferencing colleagues are outof pocket during the 25 minute meeting. As another instance, aconference scheduled for 60 minutes including 7 employees may becompleted early after 25 minutes so that the space used for theconference as well as the 7 employees are freed up earlier thanexpected. Here, even if a first employee had access to an electronicallymaintained schedule of another employee in a conference, the unexpectedschedule change would not be detected and an opportunity to communicateor inability to communicate as a function of a schedule change would notbe perceived by the first employee.

To support a fluid set of employees within enterprise facilities,enterprises are routinely seeking to provide space optimized forspecific uses. For instance, where employees within a facility or asection of a facility routinely engage in focused individual activities,space should be optimized for individual activities and in anothersection of a facility where employees routinely work in large groups(e.g., 5 or more employees), the space should be optimized to facilitatelarge group activities. Current systems for identifying optimizedemployee supporting resources are not very good.

Thus, there is a need for tools that enable employees of an enterpriseto identify resources within one or more enterprise facilities as wellas affordances associated with those resources and current and futureavailability of those resources. There is also a need for employees tobe able to set notifications for themselves or for other employees toindicate status changes (e.g., a change from available to busy or viceversa) for specific enterprise resources. There is further a need for asystem that enables tracking of resource use in a simple and costeffective manner using hardware that already exists for other purposes,especially in facility areas where wireless access points or the likeare not provided.

These and other objects, advantages and aspects of the invention willbecome apparent from the following description. In the description,reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof,and in which there is shown a preferred embodiment of the invention.Such embodiment does not necessarily represent the full scope of theinvention and reference is made therefore, to the claims herein forinterpreting the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a system associated with anenterprise that is capable of performing at least some aspects ofvarious embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view illustrating a subset of the systemcomponents shown in FIG. 1 and associated with a sub-portion of thespace shown in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating a portable electronic computingdevice that may be used to facilitate various aspects of at least someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is similar to FIG. 3 , albeit showing a graphical map screen shotview of a facility;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing the components of one of the trackingdevices shown in FIG. 2 ;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a data collector subassembly that isconsistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a schematic showing internal components of at least some ofthe components shown in FIG. 6 ;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing another representation of a subset ofthe system components from FIG. 1 to show communication paths betweensystem devices in a simplified view;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view illustrating exemplary CAD models and CADrenderings on portable electronic devices that are consistent with atleast some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating a commissioning procedure forgenerating virtual views of enterprise space according to at least someaspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating a process whereby an electronicdevice can be used to render representations of enterprise space;

FIG. 12 is similar to FIG. 3 , albeit illustrating a screen shot of agraphical map of a specific facility space;

FIG. 13 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing a different screen shot;

FIG. 14 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing yet another screen shotfor generating a review of an enterprise space;

FIG. 15 is a schematic showing an image taking aspect related to a spacereview process that is consistent with at least some aspects of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 16 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating another screen shotfor facilitating communication between a device user and anotherenterprise employee represented via the screen shot;

FIG. 17 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating a screen shot thatenables file sharing with an employee that is represented on a graphicalmap on a device display;

FIG. 18 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating another screen shotincluding a dual view to show local and remote employees at the sametime;

FIG. 19 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating another screen shotfor expediting a resource search function;

FIG. 20 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating another screen shotfor selecting a facility in which to search for resources;

FIG. 21 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating another screen shotuseful for reviewing affordances and a schedule corresponding to aspecific facility space;

FIG. 22 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating another screen shotfor selecting space characteristics to drive a space search function;

FIG. 23 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating a graphical floorplan view showing a portable device user and a path to a nearest printerthat is consistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 24 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating a mobile dayrepresentation showing meetings that a device user is to attend duringthe course of a day;

FIG. 25 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing a screen shot whereresource locations relative to a device user are shown in list fashionwith a distance scale;

FIG. 26 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing resource searching toolsthat are consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 27 is similar to FIG. 26 , albeit showing dynamic search resultsgenerated as text is entered into a search field;

FIG. 28 is similar to FIG. 27 , albeit showing employee informationcorresponding to an employee selected from a list of employees in FIG.27 ;

FIG. 29 is similar to FIG. 27 , albeit showing a list of favoriteresources relative to the location of a specific device user;

FIG. 30 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing a floor plan view withfavorite employees' locations relative to a specific device user;

FIG. 31 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing a notification interfaceuseable to set a resource status notification;

FIG. 32 is a view similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing tools forindicating a specific point of reference and related information on afloor plan view of a facility space;

FIG. 33 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit illustrating a notificationsinterface consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 34 is similar to FIG. 33 , albeit illustrating a sub-window openedup to show pending notifications for a device user;

FIG. 35 is similar to FIG. 33 , albeit showing a favorite co-worker'sview presented to a device user;

FIG. 36 is similar to FIG. 35 , albeit showing a “near me” view ofenterprise employees near a device user;

FIG. 37 is similar to FIG. 36 , albeit showing a search view ofco-workers for searching for co-worker proximate a device user;

FIG. 38 is similar to FIG. 37 , albeit showing notifications, messagesand other communication tools corresponding to a specific employee of anenterprise;

FIG. 39 is similar to FIG. 38 , albeit showing an intermediatenotification specifying interface;

FIG. 40 is similar to FIG. 39 , albeit showing an intermediatenotification specification interface at a later point in thespecification process;

FIG. 41 is similar to FIG. 41 , albeit showing a different notificationspecifying interface;

FIG. 42 is similar to FIG. 41 , albeit showing a different time in theprocess of specifying a notification;

FIG. 43 is similar to FIG. 42 , albeit showing an interface forgenerating a notification for another employee;

FIG. 44 is screen shot similar to the view shown in FIG. 33 , albeitwhere a settings interface for specifying privacy and notificationpreferences is shown;

FIG. 45 is similar to FIG. 12 , albeit showing another settingsinterface that is consistent with at least some aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 46 is similar to FIG. 33 , albeit showing a statistics screen shotthat is consistent with at least some aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 47 shows another screen shot including yet a different view offacility space including information representing that status of eachspace;

FIG. 48 is similar to FIG. 47 , albeit showing information related to aspecific one of the spaces represented in FIG. 47 after selection ofthat space representation in FIG. 47 ;

FIG. 49 is an alternate view that may be employed instead of the viewshown in FIG. 48 ;

FIG. 50 shows a device screen shot presenting a space query or search insentence form where different search parameters can be modified in anextremely intuitive fashion;

FIG. 51 shows the results of a search performed via the interface ofFIG. 50 in yet another screen shot;

FIG. 52 shows a screen shot including a text message that is consistentwith at least some notification aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 53 is similar to the FIG. 52 illustration, albeit showing adifferent text message;

FIG. 54 is similar to the FIG. 52 illustration, albeit showing anothertext message;

FIG. 55 is similar to the FIG. 52 illustration, albeit showing yetanother text message;

FIG. 56 is a schematic illustrating a device screen shot or interfacerepresenting facility space and indicating and status and affordanceswithin each space;

FIG. 57 is similar to FIG. 56 , albeit showing similar information in agraphical floor plan view; and

FIG. 58 is a schematic similar to FIG. 34 , albeit including a fourthparameter setting field.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

The various aspects of the subject disclosure are now described withreference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals correspond tosimilar elements throughout the several views. It should be understood,however, that the drawings and detailed description hereafter relatingthereto are not intended to limit the claimed subject matter to theparticular form disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the claimed subject matter.

As used herein, the terms “component,” “system” and the like areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being,a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable,a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way ofillustration, both an application running on a computer and the computercan be a component. One or more components may reside within a processand/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on onecomputer and/or distributed between two or more computers or processors.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example,instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other aspects or designs.

In the description that follows, various system components and featuresare described in the context of different embodiments. It should beappreciated that different systems may have different complexities andtherefore that some systems may only have a subset of the describedcomponents and may only provide a subset of the described features. Inaddition, while one or another feature may be described in the contextof a specific embodiment, any of the features may be used in any of theembodiments.

Furthermore, the disclosed subject matter may be implemented as asystem, method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standardprogramming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware,hardware, or any combination thereof to control a computer or processorbased device to implement aspects detailed herein. The term “article ofmanufacture” (or alternatively, “computer program product”) as usedherein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computerreadable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storagedevices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips . . . ), opticaldisks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD) . . . ),smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., card, stick). Additionallyit should be appreciated that a carrier wave can be employed to carrycomputer-readable electronic data such as those used in transmitting andreceiving electronic mail or in accessing a network such as the Internetor a local area network (LAN). Of course, those skilled in the art willrecognize many modifications may be made to this configuration withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.

Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference numerals correspondto similar elements throughout the several views and, more specifically,referring to FIG. 1 , the present disclosure will be described in thecontext of an exemplary enterprise system 10 for managing facilityresources including resources associated with one or more enterprisespaces 11 a, 11 b, 11 c, . . . 11 n. Among other components, the system10 includes a server 12, a database 14 (e.g., a computer readablemedium) and, in at least some cases, employee computer devices(s) orwork station(s) 16.

Herein, an “enterprise” is a business or entity that includes resourcesincluding, among other things, conference tables, desks, credenzas,stationary or moveable wall structures, doors, video conferencingsubassemblies, projectors, printers, computers, etc. In addition,resources may also include employees that work for an enterprise and/oremployee time.

In still other cases resources may include non-employee personnellocated in or on an enterprise property such as, for instance, thirdparty contractors, customers, clients, service providers, etc. Herein,unless indicated otherwise the term “employee” will be used generally torefer to an actual employee of an enterprise or some other non-employeeperson that is at least temporarily located on an enterprise property.In at least some embodiments different resource information may be madeavailable to employees and non-employees. For instance, while employeesmay be able to view locations of all employees and non-employees in anenterprise facility, non-employees may not and may be restricted toidentify a subset of available personal and conference spaces reservedfor use by visiting non-employees. In other cases non-employees may havethe ability to access all resource information that is accessible toemployees.

In order to effectively use resources, employees need to know theresources that they have available for use, locations of the resourcesand, in many cases, whether or not those resources have beenprescheduled or are currently occupied and therefore cannot be usedduring various time periods. The present disclosure describes exemplarysystems and processes that may be used to track and report resourcelocations and use and to enable enterprise employees to access resourcesefficiently.

Referring still to FIG. 1 , server 12 includes one or more computersthat cooperate to perform various processes and methods that areconsistent with at least some aspects of the present invention. Whileserver 12 is shown as a single component in system 10, it should beappreciated that server 12 may include two or more servers and othercomputing and networked devices that cooperate to perform processes orthat divide up tasks and processes to be performed. Server 12 is linkedto database 14.

Database 14 includes one or more computer readable medium and storesprograms run by server 12 as well as data and other information used byserver 12 to facilitate programs and methods and data that is generatedthrough use of the programs run by server 12. Types of data stored indatabase 14 depend on which of several different applications areperformed by server 12. For instance, some applications may only beuseful for identifying locations of non-human resources (e.g., spaces,video conferencing equipment, etc.), other applications may only beuseful for identifying locations of enterprise employees ornon-employees, and still other applications may be used to manage all(e.g., human and non-human) resources. Where non-human resourcelocations are to be reported, in some cases simple descriptions of theresources suitable to distinguish one from others may suffice. In othercases where views of resources are to be provided, 2D or 3D CAD or otherresource representations may be stored for generating views of spaces.Where employee locations are tracked, records for each employee may bestored including name, title, an image, etc. In addition, in some casesemployee tracking or privacy preferences may be stored such as, forinstance, limitations related to which other employees can track anemployee's location, spaces in which location can and cannot be tracked,time periods during which locations can and cannot be tracked,activities during which locations can and cannot be tracked, etc.

In still other cases, applications may allow employees to view andmodify schedules of all or a subset of enterprise resources. Here, foreach resource that can be scheduled, either database 14 will storescheduling software and schedule information or server 12 will haveaccess to scheduling applications maintained by another linked serverfor obtaining schedule information and manipulating resource schedules.

In still other applications it is contemplated that alarms ornotifications related to various resource activities, statuses,circumstances, etc., may be rendered by server 12 to enterpriseemployees. For instance, an employee may want to know when anotheremployee has entered a specific enterprise facility. As anotherinstance, an employee may want to know when a specific conference roombecomes available for use. In these and other cases, database 14 maystore notification specifications for each resource indicatingcircumstances to track and other employees to notify. In some cases allof the above applications may be integrated into a single system packagein which case relatively complex records for each resource may be storedin database 14. Other types of data required to support applicationsdescribed hereafter are contemplated.

Workstation 16 is linked to server 12 for accessing output of various ofthe programs run by server 12 and to allow input for controlling variousaspects of the programs. While workstation 16 may be stationary, in someembodiments the work station 16 may be portable and include a laptop, atable type computing device, a smart phone, etc. Server 12 is alsolinked to various other system components as described in greater detailhereafter.

Referring still to FIG. 1 , each space 11 a through 11 n is shown as aseparate facility. In other embodiments, however, each space may includea floor of a facility, all of the floors that comprise a multi floorfacility, or a subset of floors or spaces, or any other space subsetassociated with an enterprise. The exemplary space 11 a in FIG. 1includes common or open spaces (e.g., 20 a), subspaces includingconference spaces (e.g., 20 b, 20 d, 20 e) and personal or individualwork spaces (20 c), etc., that form a map when viewed in top plan viewas in FIG. 1 . FIG. 1 indicates real time locations of various resourcesin at least some of the subspaces including enterprise employees 15,conference tables 22, 28 or desks, task chairs 24 a, 24 b, etc.,credenzas or file cabinets 30, lounges or sofas 26, doors 32 and otherresources including printers, portable video conferencing equipment,etc. Other resources may include moveable wall structures and otherportable equipment useable in one or multiple of the subspaces.

Referring still to FIG. 1 and now also to FIG. 2 , a portion of space 11a in FIG. 1 is shown in a larger and more detailed view in FIG. 2 . Theenlarged space in FIG. 2 includes subspaces 20 a through 20 e where wallstructure separates space 20 b from the other spaces and separates space20 c from the other spaces but where space 20 a opens into space 20 eand space 20 d also opens into space 20 e. Thus, in at least some cases,spaces recognized as distinct from other spaces may be portions oflarger spaces without any mechanical dividing wall or other structure.

Referring again FIG. 1 , digital maps of each of the enterprise spaces11 a through 11 n are stored within database 14 for use by server 12 toperform various applications useful in managing the enterprise. Thewalls and other permanent dividing structure in the maps may beidentified using a floor or architectural plan for each of the facilityspaces as known in the art. In at least some cases all or at least asubset of the maps are dynamic in that they are routinely updated toreflect changes in the locations of resources within facility spaces.For instance, if a conference table and a set of chairs is moved fromone facility space to another, the locations of the table and chairs ona facility map may be updated to reflect the movements.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that portable personalcomputing devices like smart phones, tablet type devices 60 and evenlaptop computers may be used as the primary interface tools by systemadministrators and enterprise employees generally for accessing manydifferent types of information related to enterprise resources.Hereinafter, the phrase “portable computing device” will be used torefer to portable computing devices generally.

It is contemplated that a “corporate maps” application may be stored ona device that is accessible via a corporate maps icon. To this end, seeFIG. 3 that shows a portable computing device 60 including a displayscreen 160 that includes a plurality of application icons including acorporate maps icon 162, a compass icon 163 and a room peak icon 165.The icons 162, 163 and 165 correspond to three separate applicationsthat may be used to manage enterprise resources. While the applicationsare shown as distinct, each has at least some similar capabilities andeach, in at least some aspects, is only different from the others in howresource information is accessed or presented to a device user. In otherembodiments various aspects of each of the applications may be providedas part of any of the other two applications.

Hereinafter, unless indicated otherwise, an employee using a portablecomputing device will be referred to as a device 60 user. When icon 162is selected by a device 60 user, any of several different initialdefault screen shots of a subset of enterprise resources may bepresented. For instance, in at least some embodiments, when icon 162 isselected, a screen shot 164 as shown in FIG. 4 may be presented as aninitial application screen. Screen shot 164 includes a content field 159and a toolbar field 180. The tool bar field 180 includes a set of toolicons that are generally persistently presented while the application isopen for selecting different application functions associated with thecorporate maps application. The exemplary field 180 includes a “compass”icon 182, a “search” icon 190 and a “mobile day” icon 192. Other iconsfor other functionality are contemplated, some of which are descriedhereafter. Each of icons 182, 190 and 192 and related functionality willbe descried hereafter.

Initially the compass icon 182 is highlighted to indicate that a compassfunctionality is an initial default function. Compass functionalitywill, it is believed, be the most routinely used functionalityassociated with the corporate maps application and therefore the defaultis to that functionality. An image of a facility map (e.g., a resourcerepresentation) is presented in field 159 which shows the location ofdevice 60 at 166 on a graphical top plan view map of at least a portionof a facility in which the employee using device 60 is located alongwith the current locations of other employees within the facilitysubspace associated with the map to help a device 60 user locate otheremployees and spaces. Here, the locations of other persons within thespace corresponding to the map are each indicated via a phantom circle168 a, 168 b, 168 c, etc.

In addition to showing employees within the mapped space near the deviceuser 166, the view 159 also shows other resources including tables,chairs, sofas, printers, video conferencing system, etc. Here, in atleast some cases, the virtual view 159 indicates real time locations ofother (e.g., non-personnel) resources within the facility spaces. Thus,for instance, if a portable videoconferencing system has been moved fromspace 20 b into second space 20 e (see again FIG. 2 ), the real timelocation of the conferencing system in space 20 e may be graphicallyrepresented so that a device 60 user can access current resourcelocation information.

Referring again to FIGS. 1 and 2 , to track locations of enterpriseresources, in at least some cases, tracking devices 40 may be providedfor each of at least a subset of resources that are located within eachor at least a subset of the facility subspaces. An exemplary trackingdevice 40 stores and transmits a unique device identifier that can beused to distinguish one device 40 from all others. For instance, device40 may transmit a wireless low energy Bluetooth advertising signalincluding a device specific identifier. In some cases, the signal may beperiodically transmitted (e.g., every 40 seconds). In some cases theperiod between transmitted signals may be change as a function of sensedmovement of a resource or a resource component. For instance, if a chairmovement (e.g., a change in location) is currently sensed, the beaconsignal may be transmitted every five seconds until movement is no longersensed. As another instance, if the backrest of a chair recliners, thebeacon signal may be transmitted every two seconds until the reclineangle is stabilized, after which the signal may again be transmittedevery 40 seconds.

Referring to FIG. 5 , an exemplary tracking device 40 is shown inschematic view and includes a processor 59, a clock 70, a power sourceor battery 72, a data storage device 74, a transceiver 76 and anindicator 78. Clock 70 is linked to processor 59 and generates a timesignal that can be used to determine when to transmit signals to server12 as well as for generating time stamps for various purposes. Whileshown as a separate component, clock 70 may be provided by processor 59itself. Battery 72 is linked to processor 59 and, in at least someembodiments, may store energy sufficient to drive the device 40 for tenor more years. To this end, in at least some cases it is contemplatedthat device 40 will be a low energy Bluetooth or other type of lowenergy wireless transmitting device that will only sporadically transmitdata to data collector devices. Indicator 78 may indicate when data isbeing transmitted (e.g., a heartbeat signal) or may indicate when thebattery 72 needs to be replaced or recharged. In some cases devices 40will be so inexpensive that after the battery discharges, the device canbe thrown out and replaced.

Referring again to FIGS. 1 and 2 and also to FIG. 8 , in some caseswireless access points 38 that are built into a facility structure andthat link to server 12 for providing wireless communication withcomputing and other devices may be used to track locations of at leastsome of the devices 40 and hence the locations of resources associatedwith each device. To this end, where access points 38 are locatedrelatively proximate tracking devices 40, when devices 40 transmit theiridentification signals, one or more access points may receive thetransmitted signals and use the strengths of those signals to identifygeneral or precise locations of the devices 40. For instance, whereseveral access points receive a signal from one device 40, the strengthsof the received signals may be used to triangulate the location of thedevice 40 within a space using algorithms known in the wireless trackingart generally.

In many cases there are spaces within facilities that are poorly servedby access points or that are positioned such that signals received ataccess points are unable to be used to identify device 40 locationaccurately enough for at least some useful applications contemplated inthe present disclosure. For instance, metal and other structures thatform facility walls or other affordances may interfere with device 40signals so that any signal received by an access point from a device 40would be highly inaccurate.

Where access points are unable to receive particularly accurate signalsfrom devices 40 but where resource locations are desirable, some othersystem must be used to detect resource locations. Two other datacollecting systems are contemplated in this disclosure. A first systemincludes semi-stationary Ethernet linked data collector subassembliesand a second system includes portable computing devices 60 programmed tocollect and report information from devices 40 to server 12.

Regarding the first system, FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate a semi-stationarycollector subassembly 49 including a base assembly 52 (hereinafter“base”) and first and second satellite assemblies 50 a and 50 b(hereinafter “satellites”). The base 52 includes a processor 51, anantenna 53 and an Ethernet jack 55. The antenna 53 is linked toprocessor 51 and tuned to receive information transmitted by satellites50 a and 50 b. Jack 55 is linked to processor 51 and plugs into astandard wall mounted Ethernet receptacle 54 to link with server 12.Thus, data received by base 52 via antenna 53 can be provided to server12.

Referring to FIG. 7 , an exemplary satellite 50 a includes a processor80, a clock 82, a battery 84, a data storage device 86, an indicator 90and a transceiver 88. Each of the clock 80, battery 82, device 86,transceiver 88 and indicator 90 are linked to processor 80.

Prior to use, satellites 50 a, 50 b, etc., are positioned or mountedwithin a facility space at locations selected to optimally obtaininformation transmitted by devices 40 within the space via transceivers88. To this end, in many spaces Ethernet receptacles 54, while present,are often located at relatively low positions (e.g., at the locations oftraditional power receptacles) within a space and therefore are oftennot well positioned for obtaining information transmitted via low energysignals from devices 40 as furniture, wall structures, or the likewithin a space often blocks a direct transmission path. Satellites 50 aand 50 b may be mounted at relatively optimal locations within a spacefor collecting data from devices 40. For instance, first satellite 50 amay be mounted to a wall at a relatively high location within a space tohave a substantially direct transmission path from many of the devices40 located within a space and to also have a substantially directtransmission path to a base unit 52 connected at an Ethernet receptacleat a low location. Second satellite 50 b may be similarly mounted,albeit at a different position within the space so that differenttransmission paths from devices 40 are covered within the space. Tobetter enable communications with the base 52, the satellites 50 a, 50b, etc., will, in at least some embodiments, transmit signals usinghigher power than tracking devices 40 so that even if furniture or thelike is located within the path between a satellite and a base 52, thesignal should be strong enough to be received by the base 52.

To mount a satellite 50 a, in at least some embodiments each satellitewill include a mounting sub-configuration. For instance, in FIG. 6 themounting components include a downwardly opening channel 89 formed in arear surface of a satellite housing structure, a mounting bracket 91 andan adhesive mounting pad 93. The bracket 91 includes front and rearsurfaces and a member 95 that extends from the front surface thatincludes a reduced diameter neck portion and an enlarged distal end headportion. The channel 89 forms a circumferential rim for receiving theenlarged head portion of member 95 via a sliding action. Adhesive pad 95adheres to the rear surface of bracket 91 and also to a supportingambient wall or other surface (not shown). Thus, bracket 91 adheres atleast semi-permanently to a mounting location within a space andsatellite 50 a mounts via reception of head member 95 within channel 89in a releasable fashion. Although not shown some mechanical fastener mayalso be provided to lock satellite 50 a to bracket 91 unless affirmativesteps are taken to release the satellite 50 a from the bracket 91.

Referring again to FIG. 4 , while battery 84 may be replaceable, in somecases battery 84 may be rechargeable and may need to be rechargedperiodically (e.g., every month, every quarter, etc.). To this end,device 50 a may also include charging contacts 87 (see also FIGS. 6 and7 ) and base 52 may also include charging contacts 67. Here, satellite50 a may be periodically removed from bracket 91 and placed on the topsurface of base 52 so that contacts 67 and 87 connect for chargingpurposes. A magnet may be provided in the top surface of base 52 and ametal or magnetic plate may be provided in the undersurface of satellite50 a that help to automatically align satellite contacts 87 with thebase contacts 67. Other mechanical alignment features are contemplated.

In at least some cases it is contemplated that one or the other of thebase 52 and a satellite 50 a may generate some signal to indicate when arechargeable battery 84 needs to be recharged. In this regard, forinstance, see again FIG. 7 where indicator 90 may include an LED thatprocessor 80 may illuminate when battery 84 needs to be recharged.Again, to recharge battery 84, satellite 50 a may be slid off bracket 91and placed on base 52 with contacts 67 and 87 in communication. Asanother instance, base 51 may include a speaker 47 and may, when thesignal from a satellite 50 a becomes relatively weak or is no longerreceived, be programmed to generate a sound (e.g., a periodic chirp) toindicate a need for recharging.

Although not shown, in at least some embodiments the subassembly 49 mayinclude a third or more satellites like 50 a and one of the satellitesmay always be mounted to the base 52 for charging. The satellite mountedto the base 52 may receive transmissions from devices 40 for use by thesystem while charging. Here, if a remote satellite needs to be charged,the satellite mounted to the base can be swapped with the satellite thatneeds charging so that all satellites can remain functional at alltimes. In addition to providing consistent space coverage, having asystem where all satellites remain functional all the time means thesensing algorithms for a subassembly 49 can be set once and be generallyvalid thereafter.

In some cases the subassembly 49 may cooperate to help an installerplace the satellites 50 a and 50 b in locations where signals therefromare receivable by the base 52. To this end, for instance, during aninstallation process, with base 52 connected to an Ethernet receptaclefor power and with a satellite 50 a fully charged, device 50 a maytransmit a periodic heartbeat signal to base 52. Satellite 50 a can bemounted in a desired location within a space. Here, if satellite 50 a ismounted in a location at which sufficiently strong signals from thesatellite 50 a cannot reach the base 52, the base will miss heartbeatsignals from satellite 50 a and can generate a chirp (or the satellite50 a can generate a chirp) sound to indicate that the mounting locationis not suitable. If the chirp sound is generated, the installer canchange the mounting position of the satellite until the chirping soundceases. Thus, an installer can apply personal knowledge about a facilityspace to optimally position satellites for receiving device 40 signalswhile being guided by the base to select only locations that will workwell given the mounting location of the base 52.

In cases where collector subassemblies 49 are employed, locations of thesatellites 50 a, 50 b, etc., within a facility need to be added to themaps stored in database 16 either manually or in some automatic fashion.Manual indication may be facilitated by accessing a facility map viaworkstation 16 and indicating the locations of satellites 50 a, 50 b,etc., on the map and entering satellite unique identifiers for eachindicated location. An automatic determination of satellite locations isdescribed hereafter.

Once locations of satellites 50 a, 50 b are known, in at least somecases, triangulation methods may be used to determine locations oftracking devices 40 within a space. In other cases signal strength fromdevices 40 may be so low that only satellites 50 within a spaceassociated with one of the devices 40 will be able to receive a signalthere from. Here, locations of devices 40 will be identifiable at leasta room or separate space level.

While the system described with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7 uses Ethernetto link to a system server, other embodiments are contemplated whereWiFi or cellular connection is used instead of Ethernet. In other casesit is contemplated that at least some bases 52 may be linked to otherbases in adjacent spaced via a Bluetooth or other type of mesh networkso that information collected thereby can be wirelessly transmitted fromone base to the next until delivered to the system server. Here, it maybe that a last base operating as a mesh network gateway is linked viaEthernet to the server.

Regarding the second system type that includes portable computingdevices 60 programmed to collect and report information from devices 40,it has been recognized that many enterprise employees use devices 60 forwork and even for personal communication that have the capability tocollect, retransmit and even analyze information obtained or generatedby devices 40. To this end, many people now routinely use electronicdevices like smart phones, tablet type devices and even laptops that areessentially always on and that include transceivers that can obtaininformation transmitted by devices 40 when in the general vicinity ofthose devices 40.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that portable computingdevices 60 may be used to automatically obtain information from devices40 when in an area associated with the devices 40. For instance, whendevice 60 is proximate device 40 a in space 20 b in FIG. 2 , device 60may collect data packets transmitted from device 40 a within space 20 b.Upon receiving a data packet from device 40 a, device 60 may run someapplication that uses or consumes that information. For instance, wheredevice 60 is used by a facilities manager, device 60 may run anapplication that enables the manager to determine resource locationswithin a space. Many other applications run on device 60 based oninformation from devices 40 are contemplated.

In at least some other cases, when information is obtained by device 60from devices 40, the obtained information may be wirelessly passed on toserver 12 either immediately if device 60 is capable of broadcasting toan access point 38 or at some subsequent time when device 60 is within areceiving range of one of the access points or a satellite 50 a, 50 b,etc. Where information is transmitted to an access point or satellitesubsequent to collection, device 60 may store the information receivedfrom devices 40 until subsequent transmission occurs. Thus, movement ofresources associated with devices 40 that are remotely located fromwireless access points can be detected, stored and used to driveapplications run by server 12. This type of sporadic data collectionfrom devices 40 is particularly useful in applications that do notrequire a complete or immediate history of resource use or states.

In cases where collector subassemblies 49 are employed, locations ofsatellites 50 a, 50 b may be automatically determined in several ways.For instance, where a base 52 associated with a satellite 50 a is linkedto a specific Ethernet receptacle and the location of the receptacle isknown to be within a specific facility space, it may be assumed that thesatellite 50 a associated with the base is in the same facility space(e.g., the same conference room). In other cases, where locations ofEthernet receptacles 54 are known and signals generated by a satellite50 a are received by more than one Ethernet linked base 52, signalstrengths of the signals received by several bases 52 may be used todetermine the location of the satellite 50 a via triangulation or sometype of statistical analysis of the signals received and the locationsof the receptacles 54.

In still other cases where employees use portable electronic devices 60within a facility, devices 60 may be programmed to collect informationfrom satellites 50 a, 50 b, etc., within their vicinity and to perform alocation determining program to identify locations of the satellites.Here, each device 60 would have to be able to determine its own locationbased on communication with access points or other signal generators(e.g., base 52 that can transmit signals from known locations ofreceptacles 54) or with other satellites 50 a that have known locations.Then, each device 60 may run a program to assess the locations of othersatellites based on signal strengths of signals received from thesatellites and its own location.

The location determining process may be repeated each time a device 60is near a satellite 50 a and satellite location may routinely berendered more precise over time. For instance, where a device 60 isinitially within a space including a satellite 50 a but is not near thesatellite (e.g., is on the other side of a conference room), the systemmay only be able to accurately determine that the satellite 50 a islocated within one half of the space but no more. A next time a device60 is in the space, the device may be located relatively closer to thesatellite and the signals from the satellite 50 a may be relativelystrong. Here, the stronger signal may be useable to more preciselyidentify the location of the satellite. The strengths of multiplesequential signals received by one or more devices 60 may be used totriangulate and further refine the location of a satellite 50 a. Here,for instance, where eight devices 60 are located within a space andtheir positions are known, signal strength of signals from a satellite50 a received by the eight devices 60 may be used in a triangulationprocess. In a similar fashion where a single device 60 is moved within aspace to eight different locations over time, signal strengthsassociated with the eight different locations may be used to triangulatethe location of the satellite.

Referring to FIG. 8 , in at least some cases electronic identificationbadges 61 may be provided instead of or in addition to portablecomputing devices to operate as data collection devices or as Bluetoothbeacons, or both. Here, a badge would operate in the same or in asimilar fashion to the computing devices described above.

Referring to FIG. 8 , an exemplary system for managing resources mayinclude any one or more of the three different ways to collectinformation from tracking devices 40 associated with enterpriseresources including access points 38, supplemental collectorsubassemblies 49 and portable computing devices 60 and 61. In some caseseach of the three information collection systems may be used together.For instance, where access points 38 and assemblies 49 can collectinformation from devices 40, that information may be routinelycollected. Periodically when a portable computing device 60 is locatedwithin a space, the device 60 may collect resource information fromdevices 40 that is more accurate than the information collected usingthe access points 38 and collector assemblies 49 and that informationmay be used to supplement or replace some of the information obtainedusing the collector subassemblies and access points.

In many cases a set of enterprise employees will not use portablecomputing devices 60 or may not have their portable devices turned on atsome times. In these cases, other devices may be required to trackemployee locations. For instance, referring again to FIG. 2 , eachemployee may be issued an exemplary electronic identification badge 61that stores a unique employee identification number in a badge memoryand that includes a transmitter 63 that transmits the identifier to datacollector devices located within the enterprise facilities. Here, as inthe case of devices 40, each badge 61 may transmit lower power signalsso that a battery charge can last several years. Location of the badge61 can be determined via proximity of the badge 61 to data collectingdevices and knowledge about the locations of the collecting devices. Forinstance, signals transmitted by device 63 may be received by satellites50 a, 50 b and used to determine location of an associated badge 61 andemployee.

In at least some embodiments of the present disclosure it is alsocontemplated that each or at least a subset of tracking devices 40 maybe programmed to sense other information that may be useful for drivingdifferent system applications. For instance, in cases where at leastsome employees do not use trackable devices (e.g., portable electronicdevices or trackable badges) or where an enterprise does not includesystems for tracking employee locations, it may still be useful to knowif and when spaces within a facility are utilized. For example, afacility manager may want to know how often and for how long specificspaces are utilized, how many employees utilize the spaces, etc. Asanother example, an employee searching for an unoccupied space for usemay want to access a list of available and unoccupied conference spaces.

According to at least one aspect of some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, each device 40 may also include one or more sensors that canbe used to sense state for status changes associated with resources orthe environments in which those resources are deployed. For instance,referring again to FIG. 5 , in addition to the components describedabove, each device 40 may also include any one or more of a motionsensor 62, a temperature sensor 64, a sound sensor 66, an Nth sensor 68(e.g., a CO2 sensor), etc. Motion sensor 62 may be any type of motionsensing device including one or more accelerometers, tilt sensors,inclinometers, gyroscopes, or other devices capable of sensing movementof a resource through or within space. For instance, an accelerometermay be mounted to the undersurface of a chair seat and may be able todetect movement within a space or changes in relative juxtaposition of aresource to other affordances within a space. An accelerometer may alsosense any slight movement of a desk or a table such as, for example,when a person touches a top surface of the desk or table during use,opening of a file cabinet drawer, closing of a door in an egress, etc.As another instance, a device 40 including a tilt sensor may be placedin the backrest portion of a chair assembly and may measure tilt of thebackrest with respect to a seat member.

Temperature sensor 64 may measure temperature within a space (e.g., 20b) or may be positioned to detect temperature change on the surface of achair seat or backrest member. When a person enters a space thetemperature of the space will often change as the person's body heatdissipates within the space. When a person sits on a chair and contactsa chair surface, the temperature of the surface typically changes andcan be sensed by a temperature sensor mounted to the chair.

Sound sensor 66 may include a microphone for detecting sound within aspace proximate the device 40. The sound sensor may be tunes to thepitch and tone range of typical human voices so as to be able todistinguish human voices from other sounds.

Other sensor types are contemplated and sensor N may include, forinstance, a carbon dioxide sensor to detect the level of carbon dioxidewithin a space, one or more pressure sensors, position sensors, etc.Here, when people enter a space, the amount of carbon dioxide typicallyincreases and therefore a change in carbon dioxide level within a spacemay, in at least some cases, be used to sense use of a space by one ormore people. A pressure sensor may be used to sense when a person sitswithin a specific seat. Each sensor is linked to processor 59 andprovides information to processor 59 related to the sensed parameter.

Processor 59 is programmed to either report the sensed parameter valuesto server 12 or, in some cases, to analyze the sensed parameter valuesand report some result associated with the analyzed values. Forinstance, in some cases processor 59 may simply recognize when a chair(e.g., a resource) moves via a motion sensor and may report the periodsince the most recently detected motion to server 12. In this case,server 12 would be programmed to use the received data to determine if aspace associated with the resource is occupied. For instance, one simplerule may be that if a chair moved in the last 20 seconds within aconference room, that the conference room is presumed to be occupied. Inthis case, if any of ten chairs within a conference space moved in thelast 20 seconds, occupancy may be presumed. Where duration since lastmovement is provided to server 12, a single received signal may be usedto identify occupancy without requiring any historical data aboutprevious locations of resources, previous movements, etc.

Another rule may be that at least one chair must move within a space andat least one sound that is consistent with the range of a human voiceneeds to be detected and reported to server 12 within some thresholdperiod for the server 12 to determine that the related space isoccupied. Many other more complex rules are contemplated.

In another case processor 59 may maintain several separate rolling statechange event time buckets or counters where state changes that occur ina specific time period associated with a bucket are counted. Forinstance, in one case a processor 59 may maintain short, intermediateand long term counts corresponding to one minute, one hour, and six hourperiods. When a state change occurs, the device processor may add acount to each of the counts to maintain rolling one minute, one hour andsix hour counts. The three counts may be transmitted periodically toserver 12. Where the counts reflect substantially the same rate of statechanges over all periods tracked, server 12 may be programmed todetermine that the sensed state changes are associated with ambientnoise in an associated space. However, where the counts reflect anincrease in state rate changes in the short and/or intermediate durationbuckets, server 12 may be programmed to determine that the sensed statechange(s) is associated with true movement or some other parameterassociated with occupancy of a space.

In still other cases server 12 may be programmed to use sensed statechanges from multiple sensor devices 40 within a space to discernwhether or not some condition (e.g., occupancy) occurs within a space.For instance, where substantially similar movements are sensed by eachof ten sensor devices 40 on ten chairs within a space, server 12 may beprogrammed to determine that the similar movements are attributable tonoise as opposed to individual movements of chairs and therefore todetermine that an associated space is unoccupied. Many other occupancydetermining protocols are contemplated. In addition, many otherprotocols for detecting other activities or conditions (e.g., other thanoccupancy) using data from sensor devices 40 are contemplated.

In at least some embodiments each device 40 cobbles together deviceidentifying information as well as state conditions into data packetsthat are transmitted to server 12 via data collectors. Thus, forinstance, a low energy Bluetooth data packet including deviceidentifying information and state conditions may be transmittedperiodically by each device 40. In other cases data packets may only betransmitted when a change in a sensed state is detected by a device 40.For instance, in a case where occupancy is assumed when a chair is movedwithin a space, device 40 may only transmit a packet once movement isdetected so that satellite battery power can be conserved.

To generate dynamic virtual views of resources within facility spaces asthose resources are moved within the spaces, in at least someembodiments, server 12 may have access to 2D and 3D CAD renderings ofeach resource used within facility spaces. For instance, in at leastsome cases, a 3D view of a space may be generated for use by anenterprise employee that wants to obtain a general understanding ofresources within and the layout of a space prior to use. Referring toFIG. 9 , to generate dynamic virtual views of facility spaces, graphical3D and 2D CAD models 130 and 132, respectively, of each resourceavailable within a facility are stored in database 14 (see again FIG. 1) that can be used by server 12. In at least some embodiments, each 3DCAD model 130 includes data that enables an exemplary resource to beshown from any vantage point. For instance, a model corresponding to aspecific chair type may be used to present an instance of the chair typefrom a front perspective view, from a side perspective view, from a rearperspective view, etc.

In some cases detail within a virtual space view will be relativelygranular in the sense that resources within a space may be representedgenerally without showing exact real life orientations andjuxtapositions of the resources within the space. For instance, where aconference table and ten chairs of a specific type are located within aspace to be shown in a view, the chairs may simply be virtuallyrepresented in an equispaced and aligned pattern about a conferencetable without showing actual locations of the chairs, orientations ofthe chairs, etc. Thus, a chair that is spaced from a conference table byeight feet in reality may be shown adjacent the table edge. Thesegeneral virtual images may be required where only general resourcelocation information (e.g., which space a chair is located in) can beobtained due to sensing and processing limitations.

In other cases it is contemplated that resource state information thatis sensed and collected may be much more detailed including not justwhich space a resource is located in but also precise location within aspace, precise orientation (e.g., facing the edge of a table, facing awall, etc.). Where more detailed information is available, thatinformation may be used by server 12 to generate a more accurate virtualview of a space by, for instance, showing precise locations of resourceswithin a space as well as relative juxtapositions of resources. To thisend, see the exemplary image 134 in FIG. 9 where some chairs are shownoriented away from the edge of a table representation to reflect actualreal life orientations. An exemplary 2D virtual image is shown at 136where chairs are shown in actual orientations to reflect the arrangementshown in the 3D view 134.

Referring to FIG. 10 , a process 100 that may be performed by server 12to commission a resource management system and generate virtual views(e.g., 3D or 2D) of spaces is illustrated. At block 102, a database ofentity facilities, resources and employees registered with a system iscreated and stored in database 14 (see again FIG. 1 ). Here, eachresource would include a resource identifier number as well as somedescription of the resource itself which may include, for instance, the3D or 2D models as shown in FIG. 9 . In this case, resources includespace affordances such as tables, desks, chairs, videoconferencingsystems, printers, etc., as well as enterprise employees. At block 104,data collectors including access points and/or collector assemblies 49are places about the facility space and their locations are identifiedand stored in database 14. Here, again, the locations may be manuallyidentified and stored or an automated process using one or more personalportable computing devices 60 may be employed.

At block 106 tracking devices 40 are associated with each resource to betracked within an enterprise facility. Here, association includes bothphysical association (e.g., attachment to a chair) and virtual bycorrelation of a resource identity to a unique resource identifier indatabase 14.

At block 108, resource characteristics are sensed by devices 40. Here,it is assumed that the virtual views to be generated will includeprecise location and orientation of resources. Because the applicationis simply for generating virtual space views, the data required to drivethe application is only presence, location and orientation informationindicating specific locations of resources in spaces as well asorientations (e.g., no occupancy data or data that can be used todetermine occupancy state) is required in this application). At block110, devices 40 transmits data packets including resource ID, locationand orientation data. At block 112 one or more data collectors 38, 49,60 in the vicinity of a transmitting device 40 receives the transmitteddata packets and provides the received packets to server 12.

At block 114, the received packets are analyzed by server 12 to identifyeach resource (e.g., via the device 40 identifier), resource locationand orientation. At block 116, server 12 accesses the 2D and 3D resourcerenderings 132 and 130, respectively, in database 14 and at block 118,server 12 uses the renderings to generate 2D and 3D views. At block 120the views are stored for subsequent use.

Although not illustrated in detail, other data for supporting otherapplications may be generating using a process similar to that shown inFIG. 10 . For instance, where statistical and historical space occupancydata is required by a facility administrator or the like, thatinformation can be generated by sensing resource movement, CO2 levels,temperature, etc., at block 108 which is transmitted to the server atblock 110 and which would then be used to assess occupancy of differentfacility spaces. The occupancy information would be used to generate anoccupancy view of a facility at block 118. Similarly, current spaceoccupancy or use views may be generated and stored at blocks 118 and120. Virtual views, occupancy views and other view types may begenerated routinely and regularly or they may be generated only when aspecific view is requested by a system user.

Other circumstances in addition to occupancy may be detected usinginformation sensed via devices 40. For instance, the number of employeesusing a space may be determined by sensing movement of a subset ofchairs within the space. For example, where five out of twelve chairsmove routinely during a one hour meeting in a conference room, server 12may be programmed to determine that five employees attended the meeting.Discerning other circumstances based on sensed data is contemplated.

Referring to FIG. 11 , a process 140 for obtaining information relatedto a facility space is shown. Here it is assumed that an enterpriseemployee uses a portable smart device 60 to request space informationand that the information is to be presented to the employee via adisplay screen 160 on the portable device. In this regard an informationrequest may be a direct request or may be automatically generated by auser's portable computer device 60. For instance, a user may requestinformation related to a specific facility space to generate a directrequest. In other cases the same user may move through a facility spaceand device 60 may change the requested information based on the currentlocation of the employee within the space (e.g., if the employee isdisplaying information related to proximate space and the employee'slocation changes, the information displayed to the employee may changeto track the current location).

At block 142, a portable computing device 60 is used to generate arequest that is received by server 12. At block 144, server 12identifies the request criteria including, for instance, location (e.g.,selected by an employee or automatically determined as a function oflocation of a device 60) of the space for which the request has beengenerated, query content (e.g., 3D view, 2D view, current occupancy,etc.) etc. At block 146, server 12 uses the request criteria to identifyinformation to present and generates a view that is most consistent withthe request criteria. The generated view is transmitted at 148 to therequesting computing device 60 and at block 150, the requesting device60 displays the generated view on the device display.

Referring again to FIG. 4 , the exemplary screen shot includes a dynamicvirtual map view 159 of space proximate a device 60 user that shows thegeneral layout of the space including divider walls as well as thecurrent locations of facility resources including the employee usingdevice 60 at 166, desks, chairs, tables, doors and other non-humanresources useable by the device user and locations 168 a through 168 c,etc., of other enterprise employees within the represented space (eachother employee is indicated by a phantom circle in the illustratedexample). The device user 166 may observe view 159 to determinelocations of proximate resources including space, employees andaffordances and thus, the overhead view operates like a compass toorient the device user.

Again, where access points 38 (see again FIG. 2 ) are proximate thelocation of one of the portable computing devices 60 or one of thedetectable employee badges 61, triangulation of signals therefrom may beused to determine the location of the device 60 or badge 61. In spaceswhere hard wired access points do not exist as in space 20 b, one ormore collector assemblies 49 (see again FIGS. 6 and 7 ) may be installedand used to determine the locations of devices 60 and badges 61 therein.In still other cases sensor devices may be installed in doorways,hallways or other locations intermediate conference or personal spacesto determine employee locations as employees move through thosetransition spaces from one space to another. Known locations prior tomovement through the intermediate spaces (e.g., a doorway) thattransition between other spaces can be used to determine in which spacean employee is located. For instance, in FIG. 2 , if it is know that adevice 60 user was initially in space 20 a based on access pointinformation prior to moving through the doorway 35 separating space 20 afrom space 20 b, it can be determined that the device 60 and an employeeusing the device is located in space 20 b after movement through doorway35.

Other system signals may be useable to determine device 60 and/or badge61 locations. For instance, where it is know that a tracking device 40is in space 20 b in FIG. 2 and device 60 obtains a signal from thetracking device 40 and passes that signal on to a single access point 38outside space 20 b, while the single signal from device 60 would beinsufficient for triangulating a location, the fact that device 60obtained a low power signal from the tracking device 40 may be enough todetermine that the device 60 is located in the same space as thetracking device 40.

Thus, the access points 38, collector subassemblies 49, portable devices60 and tracking devices 40 together may form a web for collectingsignals useable by server 12 to determine locations and othercharacteristics of enterprise resources using one or a plurality ofdifferent algorithms.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that each or at least asubset of the resource representations in view 159 may be selectable toobtain additional information about that resource. For instance, as seenin FIG. 4 , a representation 168 c of one employee in the view 159 maybe selected (e.g., via touch) causing an image 170 of the employee aswell as a name field 172 to be presented in a manner that associates theimage and name field 172 with the employee representation and locationin the presented view.

As another example, the device 60 user may select one of the spacespresented in view 159 to obtain additional information about the spaceand resources or affordances located therein. For instance, where space20 b in FIG. 4 is selected via touch or the like, the image of space 20b may be enlarged as in FIG. 12 and presented as a screen shot 200showing a larger version of the 2D representation (e.g., anotherresource representation) of space 20 b. In FIG. 12 additional detailincluding the names of employees currently located in the space 20 b isadded to the image to help the device 60 user better understand currentuse of space 20 b. Thus, for instance, the name “Jill Jones” has beenspatially associated with employee representation icon 202 to indicateidentity of the represented employee.

When employees use a resource, often times the employee develops animpression of the resource that she would like to share with others suchas, for instance, a facility administrator, other employees, etc. Forinstance, an employee may have determined that a specific space withspecific affordances was particularly attractive or useful and may wantto issue a review of the space including an image(s) and comments. Tothis end, referring to FIG. 13 , it is contemplated that in some caseswhen an open portion (e.g., 220) of a space view is selected, an optionto review the space may be presented as at 222 including a “Review” icon224 and a camera icon 226. Here, selection of the review icon 224 wouldopen up a comment field in which a system user could enter a commentrelated to the selected space.

An exemplary review screen shot 235 is shown in FIG. 14 which includes areview field 230 including questions and a pre-canned set of answersthat can be selected to provide useful information. For instance, anemployee may be able to indicate resources that are available within aspace by selecting different options in field 230 if the system does notalready include that information. Some of the questions require judgmentsuch as, for instance, if the lighting in the space is adequate, anoverall rating value, etc. A field 238 is also provided so that apersonalized comment can be issued. A camera icon 234 is provided foradding an image to the review. Once a review is completed, a submit icon240 may be selected to add the review information to database 14 forsubsequent access by the employee that generated the review as well asby others. A back icon 236 is also provided for returning to a previousview if the employee does not want to issue a review.

Referring again to FIG. 13 , selection of camera icon 226 opens up acamera application as in FIG. 15 so that an employee can view an image252 of a space 250 and snap a picture via virtual button 254 to obtainan image of the space to be added to a subset of data associated withthe space in database 14. Space images may be subsequently access in atleast some embodiments by other employees to obtain a sense of a spaceprior to reversing the space for subsequent use, prior to arriving atthe space for a conference, etc.

In at least some embodiments a device 60 user may be able to select anemployee's name from a name field associated with an employeerepresentation on a space map view in order to establish communicationwith that employee. For instance, see FIG. 16 where a user has selectedthe “Jill Jones” field or icon 206 to open up a communication typeselection field 290 including a set of icons associated with differentways of communicating with the selected employee. Here, for instance,the icon set includes a “mail” icon 292, a “phone” icon 294, a “video”icon 296, and first, second and third social media icons 298, 300 and302 that are associated with an e-mail application, a phone application,a video application and other types of media applications, respectively.Selection of any of the icons in field 290 causes device 60 to start anassociated communication process with the selected employee.

Referring again to FIG. 16 , in at least some cases field 290 will alsoinclude a file share icon 303 that is selectable to share one or morefiles with an employee shown on a map view. In this regard, once icon303 is selected, referring also to FIG. 17 , a file sharing window 310may be presented in relation to the identified employee's icon 206 toenable the device 60 user to select one or more files from a list 312 tobe shared with the selected employee at 206. Once files to share havebeen selected, a “Share” icon 314 may be selectee to complete thesharing process. In response to selection of icon 314, server 12 obtainsthe selected files, places the selected files in an e-mail or otherelectronic communication (e.g., a text message) and sends the selectedfiles to the target recipient.

In at least some embodiments when an employee icon like icon 206 isselected, at least some information about the employee's current status(e.g., an employee status indicator) may be presented in addition to thecommunication selection field 290. For instance, referring again toFIGS. 13 and 16 , when icon 206 is selected, the icon 206 may be changedas indicated to show that Jill is “Busy” as at 207. Here, Jill's statusmay be determined by accessing Jill's schedule maintained by electronicscheduling software used by Jill and other enterprise employees. In thealternative, Jill's status may be determined in real time by sensingJill's current activities and discerning whether or not Jill is likelyavailable by applying a rule set maintained in database 14. Forinstance, where server 12 can determine that Jill is in a conferencespace with four other employees and that the employees are having adiscussion, the server 12 may be programmed to determine that Jill is ina meeting and not available.

In still other cases a combination of appointments entered into anelectronic scheduling program and real time sensing of employeeactivities may be used to determine if an employee is available or busyor has some other status. For instance, where Jill has a scheduledmeeting in 45 minutes (e.g., a meeting on an electronic schedule) and istravelling toward a conference room that is 30 minutes away (sensed realtime conditions), server 12 may be programmed to detect that Jill isbusy and should not be disturbed. Many other rules for automaticallydetermining current employee status are contemplated. Other statuses andrelated indicators are also contemplated such as “Sleep”, ‘Vacation“,etc.

Referring yet again to FIG. 16 , where an employee (e.g., Jillrepresented at 206) is occupied/busy, in at least some cases certainapplications for communicating with that employee may be disabled or atleast indicated as less desirable options because the would disturb theemployee if used. For example, see that the phone and video icons 294and 296 are shaded with double-cross hatching to indicate that they areeither disabled or less desirable ways to communicate with Jill who isindicated as busy at 207. By visually distinguishing communicationoptions 294 and 296 from other options, device 60 steers the device 60user toward more optimal options to communicate given the status of anassociated employee.

Other initial or default corporate map screens are contemplated. Forexample, in many cases an employee may routinely work or socialize witha subset of enterprise employees on a team and the employee may desireto receive information related to each team member when the corporatemaps application is first accessed. Hereinafter, the list of employeeson a team will be referred to generally as a “favorites list” and theemployees on the list will be referred to as “favorites”.

Referring to FIG. 18 , an exemplary initial “dual map” screen shot 320showing information about employees (e.g., another resourcerepresentation) on a favorites list is illustrated. The view is referredto as a “dual map” view because the view includes one representationoverlying another. In this regard, it has been recognized that oftentimes employees on a favorites list will be located at many differentlocations so that all favorites cannot be presented in a single facilitymap view. For instance, in the exemplary view in FIG. 18 , six employeesare on the favorites list of the employee using device 60 includingJill, Tom, Josh, Mary, Jen and Ralph. Of the six favorites, only Joshand Mary are at locations within the same facility as the device 60 userwhile the others are at other locations. For instance, Jill is in Paris,Tom is in Shanghai, Jen is in Los Angeles and Ralph is in Grand Rapids.Because Josh and Mary are in the same facility as the device 60 user,each of Josh and Mary can be represented in the facility map view (seephantom circles at 321 and 327) along with the device 60 user at 166.Because the other favorites are not in the same facility, they cannot berepresented in the facility map view. Instead, the remote favorites arepresented in a shaded frame “remote” view space 360 that overlies thefacility map view.

Locations of remote employees are determined by systems in occupiedfacilities as described above and are provided to server 12. In somecases employee locations outside enterprise facilities may also betracked using GPS or some other type of system and those locations maybe used by server 12 to drive one or more applications along withfacility location information for other employees.

Even inside a facility space, in some cases, a GPS system may be able toprovide somewhat accurate position information for a portable usercomputing device. In this case, information from an external GPS systemmay be combined with signals from a transmitting device within afacility to more accurately determine location of the transmittingdevice. Many different algorithms for combining GPS and facility sensedinformation from stationary sensors as well as portable computingdevices that obtain information from transmitting devices arecontemplated.

In still other cases other systems that can indicate locations ofpersons outside facilities with sensing devices may be used to determineemployee and other locations. For instance, where an employee isscheduled to be on a flight from Europe to the United States, a planetracking system that identifies the location of the flight over theOcean may be used to determine the location of the employee on theflight.

As shown, in at least some embodiments the remote view will be at leastsomewhat transparent so that the device 60 user can see therethrough toperceive underlying aspects of the graphical local facility map view.For instance, space defining walls, chairs, tables, etc., as well asphantom circles showing other employees may be observable under theremote view frame. Where remote favorites are represented in the remoteview space 360, they may be located at locations where minimal orrelatively unimportant information is represented in the underlyingfacility map view. For instance, remote favorites representations may,where possible, be placed in space 360 at locations where they do notoverlap phantom circle representations of other employees. Remoteemployee representations may be presented at locations in space 360 thatshow employee locations relative to the graphical map view presented.Thus, in FIG. 18 where North is up, if Shanghai is to the West of themap view and Grand Rapids is to the East, Shanghai and Grand Rapidsrepresentations would be shown in the left and right portions of theborder space 360 as illustrated.

In at least some cases the portion of the facility map view representedin FIG. 18 may be modified to include a space just large enough to showlocations of favorites within a local facility in which the device 60user resides. For instance, in FIG. 18 , if Josh and Mary were bothlocated in the same space (e.g., 333) as employee 166, the facility mapview may automatically be zoomed in to include only space 333. In somecases the portion of the map view shown with boundary 360 which is notshaded may be zoomed in or out as a function of location of favorites sothat any local favorites are within the space defined by boundary 360.

In the FIG. 18 example, each favorite's name and current status areindicated. For instance, see the name fields at 330, 322, 325 and 340.Josh is indicated as “Free” at 324 while Mary is indicated as “Busy” at323. Here, again, the status designations may be determined in any ofseveral ways including accessing scheduling software, by using real timesensed information about employees and their surrounding environments ora combination of both scheduled activities and sensed real timeinformation.

For remote employees identified in the frame 360, in addition to nameand status indications, location and time indicators are presented tohelp the device 60 user have some context in which to consider thefavorite's current status. For instance, for Jill, the location and timeindicators at 334 and 336 indicate that she is in Paris and that thelocal time is 5 PM while for Ralph the indicators at 344 and 346indicate that he is in Grand Rapids and that the current time is 1 PM.Although not shown, other information about employees may be presentedsuch as, for instance, additional information about their environments.For example, the current weather in Paris may be indicated and spatiallyassociated with Jill or Jill's general availability or lack thereofduring the next eight hours may be indicated (e.g., “Available next from10 AM to 11 AM your time”).

Referring yet again to FIG. 18 , in some cases the favoritesrepresentation may be color coded or otherwise visually distinguished insome fashion to indicate current status. For instance, because Jill isbusy, the square 330 representation of Jill may be shaded red.Similarly, the square 325 associated with Mary may be shaded red toindicate a busy status while Josh's square 322 may be shaded green.Other colors for other statuses are contemplated such as, for instance,a yellow shading to indicate that an employee is scheduled to be free inthe next 15 minutes. Color coding is particularly advantageous as it canbe used to quickly sort out statuses of favorites or other resources asdescribed hereafter.

Thus, the FIG. 18 dual map view is a simple way for an employee toascertain the immediate status of and other information related to allother employee's on the employee's favorites list. In at least somecases it is contemplated that an employee will be able to customize thetypes of information presented for each favorite or for all favoritesand may be able to add and delete other employees to and from thefavorites list.

In at least some embodiments the corporate maps application will enablean employee to search for any enterprise resources including space,affordances and other employees to determine locations and currentstatus (e.g., available, busy, etc.). To this end, see again FIG. 4 thatincludes search icon 190. When icon 190 is selected, in at least someembodiments a screen shot as in FIG. 19 may be presented that queriesthe employee to indicate the type of resource sought. The exemplaryscreen shot includes a proximate facility field 271, a person icon 179and a facility selection icon 273. The facility selection icon 273 canbe selected to access a list of other (e.g., remote) enterprisefacilities in which the employee would like to search for a resource.For instance, when icon 273 is selected, the screen shot in FIG. 20 maybe presented that shows enterprise facilities graphically along withlocations of the facilities for selection by the user. The exemplarygraphical representations in FIG. 20 include representations 350, 352,354 and 356, each of which is selectable to indicate a facility forwhich a search should be focused. Once a facility is selected, a screenshot akin to the one shown in FIG. 19 may again be presented, albeitwhere the proximate facility field 271 is replaced by a similar fieldfor the selected remote facility.

Referring again to FIG. 19 , the proximate facility field 271 indicatesthe facility that the device 60 user currently resides in and, in thepresent example, indicates the Palo Alto facility. The facility in whichthe device 60 user currently resides may be automatically determined andset as a default if device 60 is currently located in an enterprisefacility. Where a device 60 user is not currently in an enterprisefacility, device 60 and/or server 12 may access a device 60 user'sschedule and determine the next enterprise facility that the device 60user will be visiting and may set that facility as the searchingdefault. For instance, if device 60 user is at a hotel (determined viaGPS or the like) near the Palo Alto facility and is scheduled to be atthat facility all day, the Palo Alto facility may be set as the defaultin field 271.

Within field 271, a set of most commonly searched for resources may bepresented to help a conferee quickly select search criteria. Forinstance, the FIG. 19 view includes a “conference space” icon 275, a“personal space” icon 277, a “printer” icon 279, and a “projector” icon283, that are selectable to search for different space types andprinters and projectors, respectively. An “other” icon 285 is alsoprovided to enable the device user to specify some other resource oraffordance that the user would like to locate.

Referring still to FIG. 19 and also to FIG. 21 , when conference spaceicon 275 is selected, server 12 generates screen shot 371 including amap view of the Palo Alto facility showing all conference spaces and, inat least some cases, may visually distinguish the spaces as a functionof their current status. For instance, available conference spaces maybe shaded (e.g., see spaces 370, 372 and 374) differently than spacesthat are currently occupied and in use (see space 376 that isdouble-cross hatched). Spaces that will become available in the next 15minutes may be distinguished in some other visual fashion (see spaces383 and 385) and spaces that will be occupied within the next 30 minutesmay be visually distinguished in yet another fashion. For instance,available spaces 370, 372, 374 may be shaded green, occupied spaces 376may be shaded red, shortly available spaces 383, 385 may be shadedyellow and shortly occupied spaces may be shaded blue.

Where a space (e.g., a conference room) on the view is selected (e.g.,via touch at 350 in FIG. 21 ), a space information window 380 may beopened that is spatially associated with the selected space and thatpresents information related to the selected space. The exemplary spaceinformation window 380 in FIG. 21 associated with space 387 includes animage 382 of the space, a list of affordances 384 associated with thespace and a tool 386/388 for selecting a time on a schedule associatedwith the space during which the space can be reserved. Image 382 may bea virtual image generated by server 12 using sensed affordances withinthe selected space as described above or may be an image generated by anemployee during a review process as described above. Similarly, the listof affordances 384 may be automatically updated as resources are movedinto and out of the selected space to reflect real time affordanceswithin the space or may be based on a review by a prior space user.Thus, for example, where additional chairs with tracking devices aremoved into the space, the capacity number may be increased to reflectthe additional chairs in the space in a real time and automatic fashion.

The reservation tool includes a time line 386 and a sliding icon 388 forselecting a time to reserve. Although not shown, already reserved timemay be indicated on the time line 386 and would not be selectable by thedevice user. Once a time to reserve has been selected on time line 386,the device 60 user can select icon 390 to provide the reservationrequest to scheduling software via server 12.

Referring again to FIG. 19 , in other embodiments when the conferencespace icon 275 is selected, other search tools for identifying aspecific space may be provided. For instance, referring also to FIG. 22, a screen shot 391 for selecting a conference space may enable anemployee to specify a set of parameters or characteristics of a spacesought. The exemplary screen shot 391 includes fields 390 for enteringspecific space parameters including a capacity selecting field and boxesthat may be selected to identify affordances needed in the space sought.Exemplary selectable affordances include a whiteboard, sharingelectronic displays, a printer, a projector, teleconferencing equipment,etc. The screen shot also includes time selection tools 392 and 394 and,in at least some cases, will include a tool 396 for selecting peoplethat will use the space along with the employee. The invitee selectiontool 396 may automatically populate with teams that the specifyingemployee is on as well as other employee names for selection. Afterparameters for the search have been specified, the employee selectssearch icon 398 to submit the request to server 12 and to generatenotices to other employees regarding the scheduled activity.

Referring again to FIG. 19 , when the personal space icon 277 isselected, space specifying tools akin to those described above withrespect to the conference space icon 275 may be presented via otherscreen shots.

In FIG. 19 , when printer icon 281 is selected, server 12 may identifythe current location of the device 60 user and the current location of anearest printer that the user can use and present information relatedthereto. To this end, see FIG. 23 where a screen shot 400 shows thelocation of a device 60 user at 166 and the location of a printer at 402as well as a most direct path 404 to the printer location and a printername label 406. Here, the employee using device 400 may follow the path404 in the representation to the printer at 402 and then use theprinter. In the alternative, the device user may select the printer nameicon 402 to obtain on screen tools for selecting a document or othermaterials to print and for controlling the printer identified in thename label. Although not shown, the device 60 user may be able to selecta view that shows the user in real time which turns to take along a pathto the printer or some other resource.

Referring yet again to FIG. 19 , the person icon 279 is separate fromthe facility icons 271 and 273 because many employees move from facilityto facility and therefore searching for a specific person in a specificfacility often times does not make sense. Tools for searching forspecific people are described hereafter.

The ability to show real time locations of resources on a map as well asto access electronic schedules of enterprise resources enables variousother advantageous tools to be implemented. For instance, see FIG. 24that shows a graphical day schedule for a device 60 user based at leastin part on the user's schedule (e.g., schedules and unscheduled timeslots) and that may be presented to the user when mobile day icon 192 isselected. In particular, the view shows a facility map and indicates asequence of scheduled activities (e.g., meetings, personal reservedtime, etc.) at specific locations within the facility at 424, 426, 428,430 and 432 that are sequentially labeled “1”, 2″, “3”, “4” and “5”,respectively, to indicate the sequence in which and location at whichthe activities are scheduled to occur. In addition, lines or othergraphical connectors are provided in phantom between sequentialactivities to provide an intuitive graphical understanding of the user'sday. In addition to the activity indicators, other schedulinginformation may be presented either immediately upon accessing themobile day view or when the device 60 user selects some feature on thepresented image. For instance, when the fourth activity icon 430 isselected, information about a meeting associated with the icon 430 maybe presented in a pop up window 436. As another instance, when a line(e.g., the line between icons 424 and 426) between scheduled activityicons is selected, when free time exists between scheduled activities, apop up window 440 may be presented that indicates the duration andperiod of free time which is visually associated with a line betweenscheduled activities by, for instance, a graphical pointer as at 438.

In other cases pop up activity and free time windows akin to windows 436and 440 may be presented for each of the activity icons and linesbetween those icons or some subset thereof. For example, where theduration of a free time between sequential activities is less thanthirty minutes the free time may not be indicated but if the free timebetween activities is 30 minutes or greater, the free time may beautomatically indicated via a pop up window when the mobile day view isinitially accessed.

In still other cases, server 12 may be programmed to indicate otherinformation when free or available time exists within an employee'sschedule. For instance, when a first employee has 30 minutes of timefree between other activities, server 12 may be programmed to identifyother employees that are also free and that are scheduled to be in thesame general area as the first employee during the free period and mayindicate that information to the first employee and, in some cases, tothe other employees as well. Locations and availability of otheremployees may be gleaned from electronic schedules for those employeesand/or via actual real time location information and sensed activityinformation (e.g., sensing if an employee is currently in an impromptuand unscheduled meeting with another employee). To this end, see theindicator 442 associated with the free time label 440 that indicatesthat two other employees are scheduled to be free and proximate duringthe specified free period). Which employee schedules are contemplatedfor notices like the 442 notice would be customizable for each employeeso, for instance, an employee may only want notices related to otherfavorite employees or specifically selected employees as opposed to anyenterprise employee.

Thus, in at least some embodiments it is contemplated that server 12 maybe able to consider employee schedules as well as schedule locations andemployee preferences (e.g., an employee's favorites list) whenidentifying opportunities for meetings to suggest to a specificemployee. Where a first employee has indicated a desire to know when asecond employee is going to be proximate and available or when two otheremployees are going to be proximate the first employee and available,server 12 may generate an indication via the mobile day view. In someembodiments a notification indicating a possible face-to-face meetingmay also include a suggest space (see 442 in FIG. 24 ) for the possiblemeeting. In this regard, in addition to analyzing employee schedules,server 12 may be programmed to examine schedules for space within thevicinity of the location that will be common for each employeeassociated with the notification to identify one or more availablespaces. In FIG. 24 , selection of icon 442 may enable a device 60 userto reserve the space indicated (e.g., at the end of the pointer 438) andmay transmit e-mail or text initiations to other employees in thenotification automatically. Space and device 60 user schedules mayindicate tentative busy status until at least one of the other initiatedemployees accepts the invite at which time schedules would be updated asbusy. Other notifications of such opportunities may also be transmittedvia e-mail, text, etc., to an employee.

Referring again to FIG. 19 , when person search icon 279 is selected,device 60 may present simple search tools for locating enterpriseemployees such as, for instance, a field in which a person's name can betyped. Once located, the location and other information associated withthe employee like current status, city, weather, next available time onthe employee's schedule, etc., may be presented to the device 60 user.

While the graphical map based interfaces described above are useful andwill be advantageous for some applications, it has been recognized thatmuch simpler and for at least some people, more intuitive interfaces canbe provided for locating and scheduling resources. For instance, in manycases simple text based interfaces may be optimal for certainapplications. For this reason, in at least some cases other tools forlocating enterprise resources are contemplated. For instance, anothergeneral type of corporate maps interface may indicate approximatedistances between an employee using a device 60 and enterpriseresources. To this end see FIG. 25 that shows a different general typeof interface screen shot or resource representation at 500 that includesan information field 501 and a navigation tool field 502. Navigationicons including a “compass” icon 570, a “search” icon 572 and a“favorites” icon 574 are provided in tool field 502. Compass icon 570 isa default icon in this case. Here, the compass symbol for the screenshot in FIG. 25 is meant to indicate that a device 60 user is given abearing regarding relative positions of resources (e.g., spaces, otheremployees, etc.) relative to the device 60 user's current location.

The exemplary information field 501 includes information that isdeveloped based on the current location of device 60 and the employeethat uses the device 60. The information in field 501 includes an image504 of the employee using device 60 as well as the user's name and atext description of the user's current location at 506 which ispresented at the top of field 501. In addition, field 501 includes adistance scale at 508 that extends downward from image 504 and thatincludes distance labels along the scale to indicate distance from theuser presented in image 504. Thus, for instance, the exemplary scale 508indicates 10 m, 30 m, 50 m, etc., to indicate 10, 30 and 50 meters fromthe location of the device 60 user. Here, the distances may be direct(e.g., as the flies) or may be most direct path distances throughfacility spaces.

Referring still to FIG. 25 , field 501 further includes a list ofenterprise resources in a resource column along the right side of scale508 where resources are aligned with the scale at locations that areconsistent with the actual distances of the resources from the locationof the device 60 user. Thus, for instance, the resource column 510includes the name “Jill Jones” and an associate image corresponding toJill Jones at 512 near a 5 meter location on the scale 508 to indicatethat Jill Jones is proximately 5 meters (e.g., may be in the nextoffice) from the device 60 user. Other names and associated images arealso provided in column 510 near other distance locations on the scale508 to indicate the distance between the device 60 user and otherenterprise employees. In addition to including employee designations,the resource column 510 also indicates other resources like conferencespaces by name where each conference space name is provided at alocation along the scale 506 that corresponds to the actual distancebetween the device 60 user and the conference space. For instance, a“Bay Conference Room” indicator is presented at 514 at approximately the10 meter scale location to indicate that the Bay conference room isapproximately 10 meters from the current location of the device 60 user,a “SF North Enclave A” indicator is presented at 520 at approximatelythe 30 meter scale location to indicate that the SF North Enclave A is30 meters from the current location of the device 60 user, and so on.

A status indicator is provided just below each of the conference roomindicators to indicate a current status of the conference room. Forexample, see indicator 515 below the Bay conference room indicator 514that indicates that the current status of the Bay room is“booked/occupied” and the indicator 521 associated with the SF NorthEnclave A indicator 520 indicating that that conference room is also“booked/unoccupied”.

A vertical occupancy bar 530, 532, 534 is provided for each conferenceroom indicator that extends between the distance scale 508 and theresource column 510 to indicate which employees are currently locatedwithin each conference room. For instance, bar 530 extends from the Bayconference room indicator 514 downward to a location just below an image550 of employee “Mary Wilbert” to indicate that all of the employeeslisted in the resource column 510 between indicator 514 and image 550 aswell as Mary Wilbert are currently located within the Bay conferenceroom (se 516). Employees listed at 518 below the bar 530 are not in theBay conference room but are approximately 10 meters from the device 60user's location. As another instance, bar 534 indicates that SaraArmiter 552 and Ann Kilner 554 are located in the SF North Enclave Bconference room indicated at 556.

In the illustrated embodiment, the occupancy bars are color coded orotherwise visually distinguished to indicate different statuses of theconference rooms. For instance, in the illustrated example in FIG. 25 adouble-cross hatched bar (e.g., 530, 534) indicates that an associatedconference room is currently booked and occupied, a single hatched bar(e.g., bar 532) indicates a booked but currently unoccupied space, andan un-hatched bar indicates that the associated room is un-booked andavailable for use. Again, shading may correspond to different colors(e.g., red for booked and occupied, green for available, etc.). Morethan three types of highlighting or visually distinguishingcharacteristics for indicating other room statuses are contemplated suchas, for instance, a unique highlighting color to indicate that a roomwill be occupied shortly (e.g., within the next 30 minutes), anindication that an occupied room will be un-occupied shortly, anindication that a room that is not scheduled is currently occupied, etc.

In addition to the information described above, “favorites” indicatorsare provided for resources in the resource column 510 that are on afavorites list for a device 60 user. For instance, in FIG. 25 , a star560 is provided adjacent the names Mary Wilbert and a similar star 562is provided adjacent the “SF North Enclave A” indicator to indicate thatMary and the Enclave A are favorite resources of Joe Brown, the device60 user. Thus, the device 60 user can locate proximate favoriteresources quickly by identifying starts and associated resources via thescreen shot 500.

Referring still to FIG. 25 , it should be appreciated that the distancescale 508 shown is compressed in at least some cases so that thedistance indicators may not reflect actual dimensions on the scale. Forinstance, if the closest enterprise resource is 50 meters from device60, a 50 meter indicator may be located at the location of the 10 mindicator in FIG. 25 . If five resources are located at the 50 meterdistance from device 60, those five resources would be listed and thenif the sixth closest resource is 100 meters from device 60, a 100 mdesignator may be presented with the sixth resource indicated in column510, and so on, so that as much information is possible is presented onthe screen of device 60 without any blanks in column 510.

The exemplary view in FIG. 25 presents resources in a list arranged bydistance, indicates employees that are in conference together, indicatesconference room availability or status and indicates favorite resourcesof a device 60 user. As device 60 is moved about within a facility or asresources (e.g., other employees) move about within the facility, theinformation in screen shot 500 is updated substantially in real time toreflect new spatial positions of resources with respect to device 60 aswell as availability of conference rooms.

Although not shown, in at least some embodiments it is contemplated thatevery resource in column 510 may be presented as a hyperlink toadditional information related to the resource. For instance, theEnclave A indicator 520 may be selected to open a pop up window akin towindow 380 in FIG. 21 including information about the Enclave A room anda schedule and scheduling tools for reserving time within the Enclave Aroom. As another instance, selection of one of the employee indicators(e.g., 512, 534, etc.) may open up an employee communication window likewindow 290 shown in FIG. 16 .

Referring again to FIG. 25 , when the search icon 572 is selected, in atleast some embodiments a simple search screen shot 580 like theexemplary one shown in FIG. 26 may be presented that includes a searchfield 582 and a virtual keyboard 584 for entering search terms. Field582 initially includes text 586 (in at least some cases in phantom) tomake clear that any enterprise resources can be searched includingpeople, places, facilities, other resources. As shown in FIG. 27 , asletters are entered into field 582, server 12 searches for resourcesmatching the entered letters and presents the resources in a resourcelist or column 590. The list 590 indicates the current enterpriselocations of each employee on the list. For instance, a “Bay conferenceroom” indicator 592 is presented above an employee designator orindicator 594 to indicate that the employee associated with indicator594 is located within the Bay conference room.

Each name in the resource list 590 is presented as a selectablehyperlink for accessing additional information about an associatedemployee. For instance, if the name Jimion Oguchi 596 is selected inFIG. 27 , device 60 may present the screen shot 600 in FIG. 28 thatshows additional archived and real time information associated with theselected name 596. Contact information like the phone number, the e-mailaddress, etc., will be selectable in at least some cases to initiate acommunication process with the employee indicated on the screen shot.

In at least some cases resources may be searched by specific name or ageneric resource type. For instance, the Bay conference room may besearched for by typing in the name “Bay” or by typing in the phrase“conference room”, either of which should yield the Bay conference roomas at least one option on a list.

Referring to FIG. 29 , when the favorites icon 574 is selected, thecurrent locations of all resources on a favorites list for the device 60user may be identified and used to create a screen shot similar to thescreen shot shown in FIG. 25 , albeit where all resources in a resourcecolumn include favorites or are somehow tied to favorites. To this end,see that screen shot 620 includes information regarding the device 60user at 622 at the top of the image, a distance scale 624 extending downfrom the information 622 and a list of resources in column 626 arrangedby distance where each resource is adjacent a location on the scale 624that reflects a true distance of the resource from the device 60 and thedevice 60 user. Stars 628 indicate each favorite resource. Note thatcolumn 626 includes some conference room entries that are not starred.These conference room entries in column 626 are provided simply toindicate the locations of employees and not to indicate that those roomsare favorites. Similarly, where a favorite conference room appears inthe resource column and is starred, in at least some embodiments allemployees in that room will be listed under the conference room wherefavorite employees are starred and non-favorites are simply listed togive the device 60 user a sense of who is currently occupying thefavorite conference room.

Another possible favorites view or screen shot 640 is shown in FIG. 30where images 644, 646, 648 of each employee on a favorites list for thedevice 60 user are presented on a map at their current locations inrelation to the location of the device 60 user at 642. For each image ofanother employee, a status indicator is presented such as “busy” 650,“available” 652, etc. The status indicators may be color coded toindicate different statuses. Here, lines, elongated triangles (see 660)or other connectors or links are provided between the image of thedevice user at 642 and images of each of the favorites to give thedevice user 60 a clear understanding of his position with respect to hisfavorites. As shown in FIG. 30 , while images of each favorite are shownin the view 640, other non-favorite employees that appear on the view640 are indicated via phantom circles (662) or otherwise are visuallydistinguished. Other ways to distinguish a device 60 user, favorite andnon-favorite employees are contemplated. For instance, the image of thedevice 60 user may be highlighted in green while images of favorites arehighlighted in yellow and non-favorites may be highlighted in redphantom color.

Referring still to FIG. 30 , favorite spaces on the map shown may alsobe highlighted differently to distinguish those spaces from others. Forinstance, space 666 is shown cross hatched to indicate a favorite statusthat distinguishes space 666 from other spaces. In some cases currentstatus of each space may also be indicated via some type of visuallydistinguishing appearance. For instance, any favorite space that iscurrently occupied may be colored red while open favorite spaces arecolored green and currently occupied spaces that are scheduled to beunoccupied in the next 20 minutes may be colored yellow.

In addition to being used to locate and determine the current status ofenterprise resources, in at least some embodiments portable or othercomputing devices like device 60 may be useable to set notifications toindicate changes in resource statuses. Here, many different types ofstatus changes are contemplated. Two general types of status changesinclude employee initiated changes and tracked changes. Employeeinitiated changes are simply messages generated from one employee toothers such as a message indicating that cookies are available at aspecific facility location or that some information posted in a specificconference room should be reviewed by an employee.

Tracked changes include statuses of one employee or resource thatanother employee has indicated should be reported via a notice. Forinstance, an employee's status may change from busy to available whenthe employee leaves a conference room in which a conference wasprogressing. As another instance, an employee's status may change whenthe employee enters a specific enterprise facility or space or when theemployee moves to within 30 yards of another employee. As still oneother instance, when a conference room becomes unexpectedly availablebecause a meeting therein ends early, the status of the room may changefrom occupied to unoccupied or even available.

Referring to FIG. 31 , in at least some cases a toolbar 502 may includea notification icon 670 that, when selected, causes device 60 togenerate a screen shot 672 for setting different types of notifications.In FIG. 31 , a list of employees for whom notifications may be set ispresented at 674 and proximity and schedule alarm types are presented asoptions in icons 676 and 678. Here, a device 60 user selects an employeefrom list 674 for which an alarm or notification is to be set and thenselects one of the two alarm types via icons 676 and 678. If a proximityalarm is to be set, other tools for specifying distance from the device60 user or spaces are contemplated and if a schedule alarm is to be set,other tools for indicating specifics about the alarm type arecontemplated.

Another function that may be performed within the system described aboveis to assign information or notices to specific locations within afacility that is associated therewith for some reason. For instance,where a specific travelling employee will be stationed in a remoteoffice for a day, an administrator may want to mark the office andindicate that the employee will be generally around so that users ofdevices 60 can easily see the location of the space to be occupied bythe employee. As another instance, where someone brings in cookies tocelebrate another employee's promotion, the location of the cookies canbe marked for others to see and as a guide to the cookies. To this end,see FIG. 32 where a point of interest icon 680 within the toolbar 502has been selected to access a screen shot 682 for specifying a point ofinterest on a facility map. After icon 680 is selected, the device userwould be instructed to select a point (e.g., 686) on the map after whichthe message window 690 is opened allowing an employee to selectrecipients of the point of interest message and to craft a suitablemessage. A keyboard 692 for navigating the window 690 and for typing inthe message is provided as well as a submit icon 694 for submitting themessage. Once a point of interest message has been submitted, the systemprovides a notice to each of the employees targeted with the messageand, if one of those employees opens a map view as in FIG. 32 , a pointof interest icon 686 is presented to indicate the location of the pointof interest.

In at least some cases when screen shot 682 is initially accessed,device 60 will present a default point of interest locationcorresponding to the current location of the device 60. Here, thedefault may be changed via touching another location on the presentedmap. In at least some embodiments, a favorite icon 691 may be presentedin window 690 for adding all favorite employees to the recipient listfor the message. In some cases a local icon 693 may be presented inwindow 690 for restricting the message to delivery only to recipientswithin a specific enterprise area such as, for instance, a localfacility, a floor of a facility, an area of the floor, etc. Thus forinstance, where “local” corresponds to a floor of a facility and boththe local and favorites icons 693 and 691, respectively, are selected,the point of interest 698 may only be indicated to favorite employees ofthe device 60 user when the employees are located on the specificfacility floor.

In some cases points of interest may only be set for finite periods. Forinstance, where a point of interest indicates cookies at a specificlocation, the notice related thereto may only be set to persist for 2hours. In this regard see duration icon 689 that may be selected in FIG.32 to set a notice duration for an associated point of interest.

While various aspects of at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure are described above in relation to different types ofinterfaces, still other interface types that represent the describedaspects are contemplated where the other interfaces types may be moreintuitive to most system users. For instance, in at least someembodiments it is contemplated that different applications may bepresented for locating and communication with employees on one hand andfor locating and reserving other resource types (e.g., conferencespaced, personal spaces, etc.). In this regard see again FIG. 3 thatincludes two other application icons including a compass icon 163corresponding to an employee or personnel tracking/notificationapplication and a room peak icon 165 corresponding to a space locatingand reserving application.

Referring to FIG. 33 a compass screen shot 700 for employee tracking isshown that may be presented when the compass icon 163 in FIG. 3 isselected. Screen shot 700 includes a lower tool bar section 704 and anupper information section 702. Tool bar section 704 includes fourexemplary icons including a “Home” icon 708, a “Co-workers” icon 710, a“Statistics” icon 712 and a “Settings” icon 714, each of which isselectable to access a different compass functionality. The defaultfunctionality is associated with the home icon 708 which is initiallyhighlighted or otherwise visually distinguished to indicate its initialdefault selection. The home view shown in the information section 702includes information at the top related to the device 60 user as well asa notifications section 716 there below. The device user informationincludes an image of the device user at 736 and the user's name andtitle and current location at 738.

The notifications section 716 includes a list 717 of notificationsreceived by the device 60 user as well as a tab 722 for accessing allnotifications that the device 60 user currently has pending orspecified. The exemplary notification list 717 includes notifications718 and 720. Each of the notifications includes similar information andtherefore, in the interest of simplifying this explanation, onlynotification 718 will be described here in detail.

Notification 718 includes an image 724 of an employee associated withthe notification (e.g., the employee whose status the notification isassociated with), a message 726, the name of the employee associatedwith the notification and the time 728 that the notification wasgenerated. Notice 718 indicates that “There are updates I'd like you toreview on the whiteboard in project room 12” and that the notice wasgenerated by Joe Brown at 7:14 AM. An expander icon 730 may be selectedto expand the notice to obtain additional information. For instance, theadditional information may include a map to project room 12, a schedulefor project room 12, a way to access a communication application forcommunicating with the employee associated with the notice, etc. Notice718 is an example of an employee initiated notice (e.g., a noticegenerated by one employee for a second employee) while notice 720 is atracked notice that was set by the device 60 user to indicate when thestatus of a second employee has changed. Thus, notice 720 indicates thata second employee has entered a media work area at 8:21 AM.

Referring still to FIG. 33 , in addition to the information describedabove, “visibility” indicators 734, 732, etc., are provided for each ofthe employees shown in the view 700. While resource and specificallyemployee tracking and related notifications are useful tools, it hasbeen recognized that at least some enterprise employees will not wanttheir status to be tracked all the time, may only want certain statusesto be trackable or visible to others, or may only want a subset of otheremployees (e.g., favorites) to be able to view their status. Indicators732, 734, etc., indicate currently set visibility of specific employeesto other employees. For instance, indicator 732 that shows an open eyeindicates that Joe Brown (e.g., the associated employee) has novisibility restrictions so that any enterprise employee has the abilityto track any status of Joe Brown. As another instance, indicator 734associated with Jim Eisner shows a half closed eye indicating that thereare at least some restrictions to visibility of Jim Eisner's status toat least some enterprise employees. For instance, Jim Eisner's statusmay only be reported on a facility location basis and may not allowother employees to determine his specific location. As another instance,Jim Eisner's status may only be viewable by employees on Jim Eisner'sfavorites list and not by other employees. This sort of visibilitycontrol function is useful in the context of the notification featuresdescribed herein and also in the context of other aspects of thisdisclosure such as, for instance, identifying employee locations in aview like the view shown in FIG. 25 .

To view current visibility restrictions for any employee, a visibilityicon (e.g., 732, 734) for the employee may be selected in at least someembodiments. The visibility indicators 734, 732, etc., presented maydepend on which device 60 user is using a device 60. For instance, afirst employee may restrict visibility to a second employee but not to athird. In this case, if the second employee is using her device 60, thatemployee would see a restricted visibility indicator (e.g., half closedeye) while the third employee using his device 60 would see anunrestricted visibility indicator (e.g., a fully open eye) for the firstemployee.

The pending notifications tab 722 can be selected to access specifiednotifications that are currently set for the device 60 user to indicatethe status of other employees to that user. To this end, when tab 722 isselected, a sub-window 740 shown in FIG. 34 may be opened that includesa list of pending notifications. In the illustrated example only asingle pending notification is shown at 742 that includes, consistentwith the style of the notifications in section 716, an image 744 of theemployee associated with the pending notification and the name 746 ofthe employee. A notification statement or specification 748 is presentedin plain English (or in some other suitable language) for the device 60user to examine. The exemplary notification statement 748 states “Notifyme when Jimion is nearby.”

Referring still to FIG. 34 , it has been recognized that there are asmall set of notice factors or parameters that need to be specified inorder to fully define a typical notification. In the statement 748 thereare three parameters specifying fields 750, 752 and 754, for specifyingdifferent aspects of the notification. The fields 750, 752 and 754 arereferred to herein as the “recipient” field 750, the “tracked” field 752and the “status” field 754. The recipient field 750 specifies who shouldreceive the notification once generated. Here, options typically includethe device 60 user (e.g., “me”) or some other enterprise employee. Otherrecipients are contemplated such as, for instance, “maintenance crew”,“facility administrator”, “caterer”, “IT specialist”, etc. The “tracked”field 752 specifies the resource for which status is being tracked. Forinstance, an employee's name, may be included in field 752. The statusfield 754 specifies the status of the resource in field 752 that shouldbe reported or noticed. For instance, noticed statuses may includeavailable, busy, nearby, within a specific facility, within a specificspace, nearby and available, etc.

Referring still to FIG. 34 , in at least some embodiments it iscontemplated that a device 60 user may be able to select any one of thefields 750, 752 and 754 to access options for setting those parameters.For instance, a touch to field 750 may open a drop down menu enablingthe device 60 user to select from a list of employees or otherrecipients for the notice, a touch of field 754 may open a differentdrop down menu enabling the device 60 user to select from a list ofpossible statuses (e.g., nearby, within 50 meters, within a specificfacility, within a specific facility space, busy, available, travelling,with a specific second employee, etc.) to be noticed, etc.

Window 740 also includes a “Notifications (Track Me)” icon 753 that maybe used to access a list of notifications that track the user of device60 and that report to some other employee. This feature is useful for adevice 60 user to determine if visibility or privacy settings should bemodified. The track me list would likely be similar to the list 742shown in FIG. 34 .

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that a device 60 user orother enterprise employee may be able to set notifications that notifyother employees of resource statuses. For instance, a first employee mayset a notification to report when a second employee is within 50 metersof a third employee and may have the notice delivered to the thirdemployee when the triggering status or parameter occurs. Similarly, afirst employee may set a notification to report when a second employeeis within 50 meters (e.g., a triggering status) of a third employee andmay have the notice delivered to the first employee (e.g., the employeethat set the notice).

It should be appreciated that any status of any enterprise resource mayoperate as a triggering status for a notification, that the recipient ofa notification may be any enterprise employee and that any employee maybe able to set any of the notifications in at least some embodiments.Thus, while not illustrated in FIG. 34 and related figures, anotification may be set based on sensed or scheduled status of aconference room. For instance, an employee may set a notification toreceive a notice when a specific conference room is next unoccupied andunscheduled for at least 30 minutes. Here, the trigger status isunscheduled for 30 minutes and unoccupied. Many other triggeringstatuses are contemplated.

Referring to FIG. 35 , a screen shot 780 that may be presented in atleast some embodiments of the present disclosure when the co-worker icon710 is selected is illustrated. Screen shot 780 includes the same toolsection 704 as describe above, albeit where co-worker icon 710 ishighlighted as opposed to the home icon. The information sectionincludes a sub-menu 782 and a current location reporting sectionincluding, in the exemplary shot, an “In my neighborhood” section 784and a “Within 50 feet” section 786. The sub-menu section 782 includes a“Favorites” icon 802, a “Near me” icon 804 and a “Search” icon 806.Selection of favorites icon 802 causes a list of the device 60 user'sfavorite employees to be presented, selection of the near me icon 804causes a list of employees near the device 60 user to be presented andselection of search icon 806 causes a search tool to be opened up asdescribed in greater detail hereafter. In FIG. 35 the favorites icon 802is shown highlighted to indicate selection thereof. In at least somecases the favorites icon 802 will be the default selection whenco-workers icon 710 is selected.

Although icon 710 is a co-workers icon for searching for enterpriseemployees, in other embodiments the icon 710 may be a more generalresources icon selectable to identify different resources proximate andavailable for use by a device 60 user. For instance, employees as wellas conference and personal spaces may be locatable via icon 710 in somecases.

Referring still to FIG. 35 , favorite employees are divided into groupsas a function of their distance from device 60 where the groups includeemployees proximate the device 60 user and employees 50 feet or moreaway from device 60. For instance, three favorite employees areindicated at 788 within the device 60 user's neighborhood 784 (e.g.,within 50 feet) and a single favorite employee is shown within thegreater than 50 feet range. Other distance divisions are contemplated.Each employee listed includes an image 790 of the employee, theemployee's name 792 and a status indicator 794 for the employee.

In addition, a notifications indication 796 and a favorites indication798 as well as an expander icon 800 are provided for each listedemployee. The notifications indication includes a count indicator 810that indicates a number of notifications set by the device 60 user foran associated employee in the list. For instance, a “1” qualifier 810spatially linked to the notification indicator 796 for a specificemployee indicates that there is one notification specification set forthe associated employee. Other notification indicators like 796 that donot include a number qualifier indicate that there are no currently setnotifications for the associated employee.

A star 798 is provided for each of the employees in the favorites listbecause each of those employees is a favorite of the device 60 user.Again, each expander icon 800 can be selected to expand informationrelated to the associated employee. A visibility indicator 812 isprovided next to each image of an employee in the list to clearlyindicate to the device 60 user whether or not notifications cancurrently be set for associated employees.

In at least some embodiments it is contemplated that where anotification tracking a specific employee is set but that employee iscurrently not visible or trackable (e.g., the employee has disabled theability to track that employee or has at least disabled the type oftracking that the notification requires), inability to track theemployee as required in the notification may be clearly indicated to adevice 60 user so that the user knows not to rely on the notificationfeatures of the system. For instance, referring still to FIG. 35 , wherethe employee associated with image 790 disables tracking of his locationand status generally, the entire section of the screen shot associatedwith the employee may be shaded red to indicate that the currently setnotification is not supported. This would give the device 60 user theoption to attempt to contact the non-trackable employee in some otherfashion. Other ways to notify a device 60 user that another employee hasdisabled tracking for that employee are also contemplated. For instance,referring again to FIG. 34 where notification 742 indicates that thedevice 60 user wants a notice when Jimion Oguchi is near him, if JimionOguchi disables tracking, the system may automatically identify anynotifications associated with Mr. Oguchi and present an indication thatthe visibility or trackability of the employee has been altered.

In still other cases server 12 may be programmed to generate an e-mail,a text, a recorded voice message or some other type of communication toindicate to an employee whenever visibility required to support a setnotification is disabled. Similarly, whenever one employee sets a newnotification for another employee, server 12 may generate and transmitan e-mail or other communication to other the employee indicating thatthe notification has been set. In at least some cases the e-mail orother communication may enable the other employee to quickly andintuitively reject the new notification by, for instance, selecting a“reject” icon or the like in the e-mail. In other cases, prior toenabling a specified notification, a first employee receiving an e-mailor the like indicating that another employee has specified a notice totrack the first employee may have to affirmatively agree to the trackingprocess via selection of an “accept” icon or the like in the electronicmessage.

Referring now to FIG. 36 , when the near me icon 804 is selected, a listof employees ordered as a function of distance from device 60 ispresented at 820. In this case, all employees and not just favorites arelisted so that favorites indicating stars (e.g., 798) are presented onlyfor employees on the favorites list for the device 60 user. When searchicon 806 is selected, a search field 830 is opened and a virtualkeyboard 832 is presented for entering search text for employees asshown in FIG. 37 . Once a search is entered, a list of employees fittingthe search criteria is presented below the search field 830.

Selection of an employee from any one of the lists in FIGS. 35 through37 via one of the expander icons 800 or the like may open a screen shotakin to the screen shot 850 shown in FIG. 38 that includes expandedinformation related to the associated employee. The expanded informationincludes an image 852 and name and current location 854 for theassociated employee along with a notifications icon 856, a messages icon858, a location icon 860, a favorite (or un-favorite) icon 862 andcontact information including a phone number 864, an e-mail address 866and a set of social media applications 868 for contacting the employeevia one or more applications. Any of 864, 866 or 868 may be selected toestablish immediate contact with the employee. The notifications icon856 includes a count indicator 857 that indicates that one notificationis set where the “1” indicator can be selected to see the notificationspecification. Icon 856 can be selected to alter (e.g., add, delete ormodify existing) notifications. The messages icon 858 can be selected toreview existing messages or notifications from the associated employeethe device 60 user. Location icon 860 is selectable to locate theassociated employee on a virtual map like the ones described above. Icon862 is selectable to toggle between favorite and un-favorite status forthe associated employee. Again, a visibility indicator 870 is presentedfor the employee to indicate current ability to track the employee.

In at least some embodiments setting a notification will be extremelysimple and intuitive. To this end, see the set of figures beginning withFIG. 39 that show exemplary screen shots that may guide a device 60 userthrough the process of setting different types of notifications. In thecase of any notification there is an employee (or other resource) beingtracked and another employee being notified. To this end, when a deviceuser selects icon 856 in FIG. 38 to specify a new notificationassociated with the employee in image 852, device 60 may present screenshot 880 presenting each of the device 60 user 882 and the otheremployee 884 as options (e.g., via images) to receive the notification.In addition, to help guide the device 60 user, device 60 may alsopresent current notifications in a pending notifications window 886related to the other employee 884 so that the device 60 user does notinadvertently specify a pending or substantially similar notification asecond time.

Assuming the device 60 user want to specify another notification forhimself tracking status of the other employee, the device user selectsicon 882 and device 60 presents the screen shot 890 in FIG. 40 . In atleast some embodiments, notifications will be one of two types, eitherstatus based or location based. Location based notifications are relatedto the location, either actual or relative location, of an employee. Forinstance, is the employee within 50 feet of me or is the employee withina specific conference room, etc.

Status based notifications include all other non-location basednotifications. For instance, is an employee currently available, is theemployee currently busy, is the employee's visibility status currentlyset to visible or hidden, etc. In at least some cases notification typewill automatically default to the status type or the location type toreduce the selections required by a device 60 user by at least one. InFIG. 40 , notification type icons for status 892 and location 894 areshown with the status icon shaded or otherwise visually distinguished toindicate that the status icon has been defaulted to. Basic statusoptions for selection are presented at 896, 898, 900 and 902 thatcorrespond to available, busy, visible, and hidden, respectively. Once astatus icon is selected, a submit icon 904 can be selected to submit thespecified notification.

Referring to FIG. 41 , when location icon 894 is selected, device 60, inat least some embodiments, presents a basic set of location options in alist 910 that includes “Is nearby” 912, “Enters a neighborhood” 914 and“Leaves current neighborhood” 916 options. Here, for instance, if thedevice 60 user wants to know when the other employee is near (e.g.,within 50 feet of) the device 60 user, the device user would selectoption 912. If the device user wants to know when the other employee isin a specific neighborhood (e.g., a specific facility, a specific areaof a facility, etc.), the device 60 user may select option 914, and ifthe user wants to know when the other employee leaves a specific (e.g.,current or future) neighborhood, the device 60 user can select option916. Icon 904 can be selected to submit a specified notification.

In FIG. 41 , if the neighborhood option 914 is selected, device 60 maypresent a screen shot 920 as in FIG. 42 including a list 922 of possibleneighborhoods (e.g., spaces) that can be selected as parameters for thenotification specification. One or more of the spaces on the list may beselected and the notification specification can be submitted byselecting submit icon 924.

Referring again to FIG. 39 , if the device 60 user selects the otheremployee icon 884, device 60 may present a screen shot 940 shown in FIG.43 where icon 884 is highlighted or otherwise visually distinguished andoptions of notification types are presented as selectable “Now” icon942, “Status” icon 944 and “Location” icon 946. In this embodiments, thestatus and location icons 944 and 946, respectively, may operate in afashion similar to that described above. The now icon 942 and associateddata entry tools are presented as an initial default enabling the device60 user to generate a message for immediate delivery to the otheremployee indicated at 844. To this end the default tools include a fieldfor entering a text message as well as a virtual keyboard 945 for textentry.

Referring to FIG. 44 , when settings icon 714 is selected, a settingsscreen shot 958 is presented that enables a device 60 user to setprivacy (e.g., visibility) and notifications settings. A default optionmay be that privacy icon 960 is highlighted and initially selected sothat privacy setting tools are initially presented. The privacy settingtools include a “Hide location” setting toggle button 964, a “Showvisibility at work” button 966, a “Show my floor” toggle button 968, a“Show my room” toggle button 970 and a “Show location to favorites only”toggle button 972. Button 964 either enables locationtracking/visibility by other employees or turns the feature off. Button966 enables or disables visibility of an employee while away fromenterprise facilities (e.g., as reported by a GPS tracking applicationor the like to server 12). Buttons 968 and 970 enable or disable floorand room visibility, respectively. Button 972 allows a user to indicatewhether or not all employees or only favorite employees have the abilityto view or track the device 60 user's location. Other location or otherstatus based privacy settings are contemplated (e.g., hide location whenin specific facility space(s), hide location when with a specific otheremployee, show location when in scheduled meetings only, show locationonly when travelling between scheduled meetings when the travel timeremaining is greater than 30 minutes, etc.).

In FIG. 44 , when the notifications icon 962 is selected, device 60 maypresent the screen shot 980 shown in FIG. 45 that presents notificationoptions for selection. In the illustrated example, the notificationoptions include “Notifications from favorites” 984 and “Notificationfrom co-workers” 986 designators along with notification type iconsincluding phone icons 988 and 992 and e-mail options 990 and 994 foreach of the designators 984 and 986. In FIG. 45 , any of the icons 988,990, 992 or 994 may be selected to toggle the notification types on andoff for each of the designators 984 and 986. In FIG. 45 boxes or otherhighlighting 996 and 998 are shown to indicate currently selectednotification types where non-boxed icons indicate notification typesthat are off. Thus, in FIG. 45 , phone notifications are on for favoriteemployees while e-mail notifications are on for all co-workers of thedevice 60 user. Other communication types (e.g., instant messaging,etc.) are contemplated and would be supported as options via screen shot980.

Referring yet again to FIG. 33 , when statistics icon 712 is selected, ascreen shot 1000 as in FIG. 46 may be presented that, for the device 60user, shows various statistics. For instance, in FIG. 46 defaultstatistics indicate the percent of a device 60 user's time that isscheduled as “available” and “busy”. This view may help a device 60 usereither maintain a more accurate schedule if the busy percent does notreflect the amount of actual scheduled time for the user or may help theuser if the user recognizes that there is not enough available time inher schedule.

In at least some of the features described above the disclosed systemattempts to optimize interface use by defaulting to a most likely set ofselections. In other embodiments the system may be programmed to alwaysdefault to likely selections to help expedite the specifying process.For instance, see again FIG. 40 that may represent a default most likelynotification specification when “notify when” icon 856 in FIG. 38 isselected. As shown, the specification selects “me” as the employee tonotify, selects the “status” type 892 of notification and selects the“available” status 896. Here, if the device 60 user likes the defaultnotification specification, the user can simply select submit icon 904to submit the notification to the system. Here, if the user changes anyof the notification parameters, the system may again, based on thechange, make a most likely selection of other parameters automatically.For instance, if screen shot 890 from FIG. 40 were presented and thedevice 60 user selected icon 884 so that the notice would be to Jimion,other most likely options in the other specifying fields (e.g., statusor location, etc.) may be automatically selected.

Referring again to FIG. 3 , room peak icon 163 corresponds to anotherapplication that may be used to identify space resource utilization andto schedule space use. The room peak application may present spaceoptions in yet another visual paradigm. To this end, it has beenrecognized that spaces can be generally categorized as a function oftheir affordances into a relatively small set of space type options andthe type options can be presented to employees for selection so that theemployees can forego the need to specify a list of preferredaffordances. For instance, the space type “private phone booth” issufficiently descriptive for an employee to know that a space of thattype will include affordances optimized for a single person phone callwithout requiring further specification of desired affordances.Similarly, a space type descriptor “meeting room with video” issufficiently descriptive for an employee to understand that the space isoptimized for video conferencing.

Presenting space options based on general types is intuitive and canexpedite use of search capabilities. See FIG. 47 that shown an initialroom peak screen shot 1010 that may be presented when icon 163 in FIG. 3is selected. Screen shot 1010 includes a list 1012 of basic space typesalong a bottom edge with associated selectable icons 1014, 1016, 1018,1020 and 1022. Icon 1020 is shown highlighted to indicate selection butthe highlight can be moved about from one space type option icon toanother to select any one of the multiple different space types.Initially one of the selectable icons (e.g., 1014, 1016, etc.) may beselected as a default when the Room Peak application is accessed. Theselected space type is visually distinguished in some fashion from otherspace types in the list 1012. In FIG. 47 the space type options includea private phone booth, a private video booth, a small meeting room, ameeting room with video and a large meeting room where icon 1020indicates that the meeting room with video option has been selected tovisually distinguish that space type from others.

A space list including spaces that are consistent with the selectedspace type at 1020 is presented at the top of the screen shot and, inthe illustrated example, includes six options including, among others, a“Large” space option 1024, a “Living Room” option 106 and a “ConferenceRoom 1” option 1022. For each option in the list, the option ispresented with a status indicator. For instance, for the large space, astatus indicator 1030 indicates that the space is available for the next75 minutes while an indicator for the living room space indicates at1032 that the space is currently booked but unoccupied. Anotherindicator 1034 indicates that the conference room 1 space is occupiedbut will be available in 15 minutes. Other status indicator indicateoccupied, available, etc. Using the screen shot 1010, an employee canquickly view all spaces that meet basic criteria associated with aselected room type. While occupied spaces are indicated in FIG. 47 , insome embodiments only available spaces may be indicated.

As in embodiments described above, different space options in thepresented list may be colored, shaded, highlighted or otherwise visuallydistinguished to indicate their current statuses. For instance, as seenin FIG. 43 , all occupied spaces shown as double-cross hatched may beshaded red, all booked but unoccupied spaces shown in single cross-hatchmay be shaded yellow and all available spaced may be shaded green.

Referring to FIG. 48 , once a space is selected from the list in FIG. 47, more information associated with the selected space is presented via ascreen shot 1040. The additional information may include, for instance,a general description of the space 1042 and a schedule 1044 showingcurrently scheduled use of the space as well as a current time indicator1046. A default duration (e.g., 60 minutes) suggested period 1047 may beindicated on the schedule to expedite a scheduling process. A selectableicon 1048 for scheduling use of the space within a free or availableperiod is presented.

Referring to FIGS. 49 , in other embodiments the additional informationpresented when a space is selected from the FIG. 47 list may include amap of a top plan view of the space selected along with the generalinformation 1042 and the schedule information 1044 with a hold icon1051.

It has been recognized that many device 60 users prefer a naturallanguage interface for searching for available resources. In at leastsome cases the room peak or other applications may be based on naturallanguage searches as opposed to other specifying types of interfaces. Tothis end, see FIG. 50 that shows one screen shot 1060 of a naturallangue type interface for locating an enterprise space that is availablefor use. In FIG. 50 , the interface includes a simple natural languagestatement 1062 with some default parameters initially set in an attemptto expedite the space locating process. The exemplary statement 1062states “I need a space to meet with 3 people for 60 minutes now”. Here,the statement includes four qualifiers or parameters that may be alteredfrom the initial default settings to customize the search statementwhere each of the qualifiers is shown in a rectangular field. In atleast some embodiments, instead of showing a rectangular field abouteach qualifier, the qualifier may be visually distinguished in someother fashion such as, for instance, via highlighting with yellow or adifferent color, underlining, bolding, etc. The four fields include anactivity qualifier field 1064, a number of participants qualifier field1066, a time field 1068 and a start field 1070.

The activity field 1064 is for specifying an activity type for the spacesought which may affect which spaces are suggested as options for adevice 60 user. For instance, where the activity is a video call, onlyspaces including hardware for facilitating a video call may beidentified. The participant's field 1066 allows a user to specify anumber of persons that need to be supported within the space and thetime field 1068 allows the user to specify the duration of the meetingto occur. The Start field 1070 allows a user to indicate when themeeting has to start (e.g., now, tomorrow, some future date, etc.).

Any of the fields 1064, 1066, 1068 and 1070 may be selected to open adrop down selection window with options to be selected by the user. Forinstance, two drop down windows 1072 and 1074 are shown for fields 1064and 1070, respectively, where a box 1076 and 1078 in each window can bemoved to change the selection in the associated field 1064 or 1070.After a statement 1062 has been altered to reflect a space required bythe device 60 user, a search or submit icon 1080 near the bottom of thescreen shot 1060 is selectable to submit the search query to the systemserver 12.

Once the statement from screen shot 1060 has been submitted, server 12identifies all facility spaces that meet the required characteristicsand presents those spaces in another screen shot 1070 as a list 1072 asshown in FIG. 51 along with status indicators similar to those describedabove.

The screen shot in FIG. 51 also includes a “Beg for a space” icon 1074that can be selected by a device 60 user to request a space withspecific affordances. For instance, if all spaces in a facility thatinclude video conferencing capabilities are currently scheduled for aspecific time, an employee may use icon 1074 to specify a request toother employees that have space with video conferencing capabilitiesreserved in an attempt to free up one of the spaces for use. Where aspecific occupied space is required or strongly desired for some reason,an employee may be able to request the specific space. For instance, inFIG. 51 , an employee may be able to select icon 1076 corresponding toconference room 4 to highlight that space and then select the beg for aspace icon 1074 to send a message to the occupier of that space torequest use.

While the interface in FIG. 50 includes four query parameter fields1064, 1066, 1068 and 1070, in other embodiments less or more fields maybe provided. While more fields may be provided, the idea here is torequire the minimal number of fields to identify a reasonable number ofavailable space options and therefore less fields are often better.Thus, while particularly useful interfaces include four or even threefields, in other embodiments it may be useful to have eight or lessfields.

As described above, in at least some cases notifications related totracked resources may be issued via communication applications thatreside outside the corporate maps, compass and room peak applicationsthat initiate the notices. For instance, see FIG. 52 that shows a screenshot 1090 including an exemplary text message 1092 that would betransmitted to and presented by a device used by an employee currentlyoccupying a space that has video call capabilities when another employs(e.g., Kelly B) is begging for such a space. The text message indicatesthe need for the space and offers a simple way to release the space. Asanother instance see FIG. 53 where a screen shot 1100 includes a textmessage 1102 indicating that a conference room 1 is now available to adevice 60 user that also includes instructions for holding the room.Text message 1102 would be generated by the room peak or perhapscorporate maps application and transmitted via an existing text messageapplication.

In addition to supporting the concepts described above, the room peak orother applications may provide other functionality to manage resources.For instance, where an employee has booked a conference space for aspecific time period but has not entered the booked space within somethreshold period prior to the booked period, server 12 may generatescreen shot 1120 in FIG. 54 including text message 1122 indicating thatthe employee has the space (e.g., conference room 1) booked in 5 minutesand may allow the employee to confirm a need to maintain the booking orto release the booking. As another instance, if an employee that hasreserved a space has not entered the space within 10 minutes of thereserved time, server 12 may generate a screen shot 1130 as in FIG. 55notifying the employee via text 1132 that the space is being releasedunless some affirmative step is performed to reclaim the space.

The rules for when to generate different text messages may be far morecomplex. For example, where an employee has not entered a booked spacewithin 5 minutes prior to the booked time, if the employee is locatedproximate the booked space (e.g., in a hallway outside the space),server 12 may forego the text message shown in FIG. 54 . If otheremployees that were invited to a meeting in a space are located in thespace during a scheduled time even if the employee that booked the spaceis missing, the server 12 may forego the text message in FIG. 57 .Similarly, if there are many non-booked spaces that are comparable to aspace that is booked by a first employee that are in the general area ofthe booked space, the system may forego any notice to the bookeequerying about intent to use the space or in an effort to free up thespace as, in this case, it is highly unlikely that the booked spacewould be needed.

Other views of enterprise space availability and affordances arecontemplated. For instance, see the screen shot 1200 in FIG. 56 thatincludes general space descriptors “private phone booth” 1202, “privatevideo booth” 1204, “small meeting room” 1206, “meeting room w/videoconference” 1208 and “large meeting room” 1210 in a top row and separatecolumns of space representations under each general space descriptorlisting facility spaces that are consistent with the general spacedescriptors. For instance, under the “private phone booth” descriptor1202, five phone booth type spaces are listed at 1212 through 1216.Similarly, for the “small meeting room” descriptor 1206, five spaces arelabeled 1220 through 1224. Each space representation also includes acapacity indicator and a video capability indicator. To this end, seeexemplary capacity indicator 1230 that indicates that two people can besupported in space 1220 and video indicator 1232 indicating that space1220 has video capability.

Referring still to FIG. 56 , each space representation also includestext indicating current status as occupied, available, etc. In addition,each representation is shaded or otherwise visually distinguished toindicate space status. For instance, all representation is associatedwith occupied spaces are shown double-cross hatched to indicate redshading, all representations associated with booked but unoccupiedspaces are shown cross-hatched to indicate yellow shading and allrepresentations associated with available spaces are shown unfilled toindicate green shading. Thus, a device 60 user viewing screen shot 1200can quickly identify general space types within a facility, can identifyspecific instances of each space type, can assess which spaces areavailable, occupied or booked and unoccupied and can assess spacecapacity and at least availability of video affordances within eachspace. If a space of interest is identified, the device 60 user canselect the space representation to access additional information.

Again, while occupied and unoccupied spaces are all included in the FIG.56 view, in other cases only available spaces or spaces that will becomeavailable shortly may be presented. While other views are contemplated,it is believed that showing the status of all spaces as in FIG. 56 maybe advantageous as an employee can confirm statuses of all spaces andmay avoid being confused if occupied spaces are off the lists. In somecases, available spaces may be presented at the top of each columnfollowed by scheduled but unoccupied spaces, followed by soon to beavailable spaces and then occupied spaces. Where certain spaces arefavorites of a device 60 user, those spaces may be presented aboveothers generally or within their status grouping (e.g., favoriteavailable spaces may be presented above non-favorite available spaces).In some cases, spaces may also be organized in the columns as a functionof other parameters. For instance, other parameters may include durationof current status (e.g., spaces available longer may be above spacesavailable for shorter periods; spaces to be available relatively quicklymay be above spaces to be occupied for shorter periods, etc.), capacity(e.g., spaces with video capability or some other affordance may belisted above spaces that do not have such capabilities).

In FIG. 56 , there are two view specifiers including a “list view”corresponding to the view shown in FIG. 56 and a floor plan view 1232.The two views are alternatives and can be selected by touch or someother interface to move a selection box 1234 from one to the other. Whenspecifier 1232 is selected, device 60 may present screen shot 1240 asshown in FIG. 57 . Screen shot 1240 shows a map or floor plan viewshowing facility space where the different spaces are shaded to indicatecurrent status (e.g., available, occupied, booked but unoccupied, etc.).To this end, double-cross hatched spaces 1242 and 1244 indicate redshading associated with occupied space, single cross-hatched spaces1246, 1248 indicate booked but unoccupied spaced that may be yellow andspaces 1250 and 1252 that are not filled indicate available spaces thatmay be green.

While the invention may be susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way ofexample in the drawings and have been described in detail herein.However, it should be understood that the invention is not intended tobe limited to the particular forms disclosed. For example, the collectorsubassembly 49 shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 may have other forms. Forinstance, in some cases the assembly may not include separate satelliteunits 50 a, 50 b and instead the base 52 may include collectors forobtaining data directly from devices 40. While this type of system maynot work well in some environments, it may be sufficient in others(e.g., a small personal office) where devices 40 are relativelyproximate bases 52.

As another example, while many of the views described above are currentor real time views of resource statuses, other embodiments contemplatedmay enable system users to specify a temporal aspect to a view to obtainother useful resource status information. For example, see in FIG. 56that a time line 1300 is provided that indicates a current time (e.g.,now) at a left and a rolling time indicator to the right thereof. Here,a selected time is indicated by arrow 1302. Arrow 1302 (e.g., a timeselection tool) can be moved along line 1300 to select a different time.The time indicated by arrow 1302 in FIG. 56 is a current time. Whenarrow 1302 is moved to a different time on the line 1300, the statusesof the spaces represented in screenshot 1200 would be modified toreflect scheduled statuses for the spaces. For instance, an occupiedspace that is available at a future time selected via line 1300 would beindicated as available. Here, in addition to changing the statusindicators, where rules (e.g., available listed prior to occupied, etc.)govern the order in which spaces are represented in the columns, theorders of the columns would be reshuffled accordingly. Similar timeselection controls 1306 and 1307 are provided in FIG. 57 where spaceshading in the image presented would be changed to reflect future use.

As another example, see FIG. 25 where the screen shot includes a timeline 1310 like the timeline 1300 in FIG. 56 that can be used to select asubsequent time to view scheduled locations of other employees relatedto the scheduled location of a device 60 user. When selector 1312 ismoved on line 1310 to select a different time, the information at 501 isaltered to reflect scheduled locations of employees relative to thescheduled location of the device 60 user.

A temporal aspect may also be added to notifications in at least someembodiments. For instance, see FIG. 58 that is similar to the view shownin FIG. 34 , albeit where the plain English notification specification1390 includes a fourth parameter field 1400 for specifying a timeassociated with the notification. Here, it has been recognized that inat least some cases a first employee will want to know in advance whenanother employee will be in the vicinity of the first employee. Forexample, a first employee may want to know any time a second employee isscheduled to be within the vicinity of the first employee in the nexthour, in the next twelve hours, etc., to give the first employee anopportunity to attempt to schedule a face-to-face meeting with thesecond employee.

In FIG. 58 , a pop-up window 1402 is shown that may be presented whenparameter field 1400 is selected which includes a set of pre-cannedperiod options including “now” 1404, “in the next hour” 1406, “in thenext 12 hours” 1408 and “in the next week” 1410. A period selection box1412 can be moved about to select one of the four options. Where, forinstance, the “in the next 12 hours” option 1408 is selected, server 12monitors schedules of both the device 60 user and the other employeewhose location is being tracked during a following rolling 12 hourperiod and generates a notification (e.g., in a list as at 717 in FIG.33 , via a text or e-mail, etc.) when the schedules indicate that thetwo employees are generally in the same location (e.g., in the samefacility).

As still one other example, when an employee adjusts privacy setting,server 12 may be programmed to indicate to that employee anynotification that will be affected by the newly selected setting. Inthis regard, see again FIG. 44 where a selectable icon 973 reports thenumber of notifications affected by new settings. In FIG. 44 it isassumed toggle button 970 has been toggled and icon 973 reports thatfour notifications are affected by the change. Here “affected” may meanenabled or disabled. To obtain more information on the affectednotifications the device 60 user can select icon 44. In still otherembodiments it is contemplated that other data collector devices may beused in the above described system such as, for instance, space or roomcameras (see 9 in FIG. 1 ) for collecting information useable to driveprocesses described above. For instance, a Kinnect camera as sold byMicrosoft or other camera device 9 may be able to obtain images of aspace useable to detect occupancy, number of persons in a space,locations and juxtapositions of affordances, etc., for driving resourcelocating, notifications and scheduling. Camera images may be used inconjunction with data collected by other devices. For instance, wheresignals from a portable device 60 received by an access point 38 cannotbe used to distinguish if the device 60 is located in space 20 b picksup an image of a single employee in space 20 b and no employee islocated in the images generated by camera 9 in FIG. 20 e , server 12 maybe programmed to recognize that the device 60 is located in space 20 b.Here, in at least some cases, the locating algorithm may be modified asa function of feedback based on the camera images to better tune thelocation process. Other combinations of camera data and other senseddata are contemplated.

In at least come cases stationary or mounted display screens may be usedto present resource information and interface tools to employees insteadof or in addition to portable computing devices. For instance, a RoomWizzard (TM Steelcase) as manufactured and sold by SteelcaseCorporation, mounted outside a conference space may present resourceavailability information including information akin to any of the typesof information described above as well as scheduling, notification andother parameter setting tools. In still other cases Room Wizard typedevices may be presented at individual desks or work spaces within alarger open space. As another instance, larger Room Wizard type screensmay be presented at entry locations to various spaces such as in frontof an elevator to a floor, a doorway into a specific department, etc.,to greet employees, present resource information (e.g., who is onpremise, open and occupied or scheduled spaces, etc.

Thus, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, andalternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the following appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, by a server via a plurality of first computing devices, aplurality of first unique device identifiers broadcasted by a pluralityof first tracking devices where each first tracking device is associatedwith at least one predetermined location within a plurality ofpredetermined locations; identifying, by the server, a location of eachfirst computing device; identifying, by the server, an occupancy statusof each predetermined location based on the location of each firstcomputing device where a predetermined location has an occupied statusif the server identifies at least one of the first computing devices tobe located within a predetermined proximity to that predeterminedlocation; upon receiving a request from a second computing device tofind an unoccupied predetermined location: identifying, by the server,at least one unoccupied predetermined location; and displaying, by theserver on the second computing device, an identifier corresponding tothe at least one unoccupied predetermined location.
 2. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the server is further programmed to provide at leastsome information via the second computing device useful in navigating tothe unoccupied predetermined location.
 3. The method of claim 2 whereinthe at least some information includes a map of space including avisually distinguished indication of the location of the at least oneunoccupied predetermined location on the map.
 4. The method of claim 3wherein the at least some information further includes a visuallydistinguished indication of the location of the second computing deviceon the map.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least someinformation further includes a representation of a path from thelocation of the second computing device to the unoccupied predeterminedlocation.
 6. The method of claim 4 wherein the location of the secondcomputing device on the map is modified as the second computing deviceis moved to different locations within space.
 7. The method of claim 1further including presenting a directional instruction corresponding tohow to reach the at least one unoccupied predetermined location from alocation associated with the second computing device.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 further including updating the occupied status of thepredetermined spaces as first computing devices are moved with respectto the predetermined spaces.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein thepredetermined spaces include physically separated sub-spaces within alarge overall office space.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, by the server via the second computing device, asecond unique identifier broadcasted by a second tracking deviceassociated with a second predetermined location; and identifying, by theserver, the location associated with the second computing device. 11.The method of claim 10, wherein the server identifies the unoccupiedpredetermined location when the server identifies the second computingdevice to be located at or near the second predetermined location. 12.The method of claim 1, wherein the unoccupied predetermined location isfurther identified based on a user preference of a user operating thesecond computing device.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least oneof the first and the second computing devices is a mobile device. 14.The method of claim 1 wherein each of the first computing devices andthe second computing device is a portable computing device.
 15. Themethod of claim 14 wherein at least a subset of the computing devicesinclude portable smart phone or tablet type computing devices.
 16. Themethod of claim 1 wherein at least a subset of the tracking devicesinclude at least one sensor device for detecting at least one conditionin an associated predetermined location.
 17. The method of claim 16wherein the at least one sensor includes a motion sensor.
 18. The methodof claim 1 wherein each of the tracking devices includes a wirelesstransmitter for broadcasting one of the plurality of unique deviceidentifiers.
 19. A computer system comprising: a plurality of firsttracking devices associated with a plurality of determined locations; aplurality of first computing devices, each first computing deviceconfigured to receive unique identifiers broadcasted by each firsttracking device within the plurality of first tracking device andtransmit the unique identifiers to a server; a second computing deviceconfigured to communicate with the server and display notificationsreceived from the server; the server in communication with the pluralityof tracking devices, at least a subset of the first computing devices,and the second computing device, the server configured to: receive, viathe plurality of first computing devices, a plurality of first uniqueidentifiers being broadcasted by the plurality of first tracking deviceswhere each first tracking device is associated with one of the pluralityof predetermined locations; identify a location of each first computingdevice; identify an occupancy status of each predetermined locationbased on the location of each first computing device where apredetermined location has an occupied status if the server identifiesat least one first computing device to be located within a predeterminedproximity to that predetermined location; upon receiving a request fromthe second computing device to find an unoccupied predeterminedlocation: identify at least one unoccupied predetermined location; anddisplay, on the second computing device, an identifier corresponding tothe at least one unoccupied predetermined location.
 20. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a server via aplurality of first computing devices, a plurality of first unique deviceidentifiers broadcasted by a plurality of first tracking devices whereeach first tracking device is associated with at least one predeterminedlocation within a plurality of predetermined locations; identifying, bythe server, a location of each first computing device; identifying, bythe server, an occupancy status of each predetermined location based onthe location of each first computing device where a predeterminedlocation has an occupied status if the server identifies at least one ofthe first computing devices to be located within a predeterminedproximity to that predetermined location; upon receiving a request froma second computing device to find an unoccupied predetermined location:identifying, by the server, at least one unoccupied predeterminedlocation; receiving, by the server via the second computing device, asecond unique identifier broadcasted by a second tracking deviceassociated with a second predetermined location; identifying, by theserver, the location associated with the second computing device; anddisplaying, by the server on the second computing device, an identifiercorresponding to the at least one unoccupied predetermined location aswell as an identifier corresponding to the location of the secondcomputing device.